Answers to Commonly Asked Questions

  1. Why do the plots always seem to be 2 hours behind 'Real Time'? (5/9/02)
  2. Why is the whole state completely gray sometimes? (12/06/01)

Why do the plots always seem to be 2 hours behind 'Real Time'? (5/9/02)

The RAWS data for each hour is download at the WRCC from half past that hour till half past the next hour STANDARD TIME. All times reported are for Local Standard Time. Since this is for the state of California, the time stamps are for Pacific Standard Time (PST). For example, during daylight savings months (appx. April - October), 8AM Pacific Daylight Time is actually 7AM Pacific Standard Time. This 7AM PST data is downloaded between 6:30AM and7:30AM. The hourly fire danger programs are then run on all the sites appoximately 10 minutes after the last site has ideally been download (40 minutes past the hour). These programs take almost 20 minutes to run, create the plots, and upload to the web site. Therefore, the programs running for the 7AM PST data would start around 8:40AM PDT and finish right around 9AM. Therefore, 7AM PST hourly fire danger products would appear to be 2 hours behind.

Why is the whole state completely gray sometimes?

The whole state could be grayed out for a variety of reasons: (1) the computers are down at the Climate Center where the RAWS data is being gathered, (2) the satellite link getting the data from Boise could be down, (3) there could be computer problems at the Boise end, or (4) if the Climate Center computer crashed or had problems, the programs computing the fire danger could be corrupted. If you notice the entire map is grayed out for more than 2 consecutive days, please send me an email notifying me of the problem.