Colorado Fire Prediction System (CO-FPS)

The CO-FPS project is a five-year effort funded by the State of Colorado with the goal of designing, building, and transferring to the state a cutting-edge system for predicting a wildfire’s extent and rate of spread; the heat and smoke it generates; the wind, temperature, and humidity in the fire’s immediate environment; and aviation hazards around the fire. 

The project began in 2015 with a bill signed into law by Governor John Hickenlooper.  The state manages the project through its Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting (CoE).

The core predictive technology in CO-FPS is based on NCAR’s coupled atmosphere wildland fire prediction system, which uses the Weather Research and Forecasting WRF-Fire model for simulating weather, and a fire-prediction module for simulating a fire’s behavior, fuels, local atmospheric conditions, and the effects those conditions have on fuel moisture.