It's not just hot air: Improved air quality model aids forecasters in the field

Imagine you're a NOAA weather forecaster in the field during a raging, rapidly-spreading wildfire. Your title is incident meteorologist (or IMET), and your job is to support agencies and emergency responders who fight these devastating blazes by providing accurate weather forecasts. Your forecasts help determine a variety of factors about how the weather could impact the fire, including but not limited to how quickly the fire might spread and where it could go.