Fire Ready Nation Act of 2022

Fire Ready Nation Act of 2022

This bill establishes fire weather programs and activities to improve fire forecasting and readiness.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shall

• establish a coordinated fire weather services program within NOAA to support readiness, responsiveness, and overall resilience of the United States to wildfires, fire weather, smoke, and other associated conditions, hazards, and impacts in built and natural environments (including at the wildland-urban interface);
• develop a comprehensive, centralized, and publicly accessible digital presence designed to promote usability of the services, tools, data, and information produced by the program;
• develop services that provide public access to digital fire weather data and information;
• seek to acquire sufficient high-performance computing resources and capacity for research, operations, and data storage in support of the program;
• establish a fire weather testbed to evaluate the accuracy and usability of technology, models, fire weather products and services, and other research to accelerate the implementation and use of new capabilities by NOAA, federal and land management agencies, and other relevant stakeholders;
• conduct annual post-fire-weather season surveys and assessments;
• establish an Incident Meteorologist Service within the National Weather Service (NWS);
• assess resources, personnel, procedures, and activities necessary to maximize the functionality and utility of the automated surface observing system and implement a plan that addresses the findings of the assessment; and
• conduct a workforce support services assessment of NWS employees engaged in emergency response.