Fire Ready Nation Act of 2024

The Fire Ready Nation Act of 2024 establishes and maintains a coordinated program within NOAA to improve wildfire, fire weather, fire risk, and smoke forecasting, detection, modeling, observations, and service delivery, and addresses growing needs in the wildland-urban interface. The bill is organized into three titles covering fire weather services, use of artificial intelligence for weather forecasting, and the National Mesonet Program.

Title I, Fire Weather: Defines key terms and establishes a fire weather services program within NOAA to support readiness and resilience to wildfires, smoke, post-fire flooding, and related hazards. It creates a fire weather testbed to evaluate technology and models, mandates data management and technology modernization, requires annual post-fire surveys and assessments, establishes an Incident Meteorologist Service within the National Weather Service, and addresses emergency response activities for covered employees. The title also requires reports to Congress, establishes a Fire Science and Technology Working Group, directs evaluation and potential update of the wildfire risk rating system, requires GAO reports, and authorizes appropriations of $15 million for FY2025, $20 million for FY2026, $27 million for FY2027, $36 million for FY2028, and $50 million for FY2029.

Title II, Use of Artificial Intelligence by NOAA for Weather Forecasting: Defines artificial intelligence and related terms, and states the purpose of improving weather, water, and space weather forecasts through AI. It requires development of comprehensive weather forecasting training datasets, exploration of advanced AI applications for weather and information delivery, technical assistance for using AI weather models, and creation of a fire environment modeling program using AI. The title also directs exploration of novel public-private partnerships, public availability of AI weather models and data, retention of federal expertise, and protection of national security interests. It authorizes such sums as necessary.

Title III, National Mesonet Program: Requires the Under Secretary to maintain the National Mesonet Program to obtain observations for atmospheric, drought, fire, and water events, prioritizing non-federal environmental data, and to integrate greater density and types of environmental observations annually.