FEBRUARY 27, 2025|
Photo – Albany County Emergency Manager Kate Allred poses with assembled weather station and Carbon County Emergency Manger Lenny Layman – by Matt Copeland Bigfoot99
Carbon County Emergency Management and the National Weather Service discussed the benefits of installing rain measurement gauges in fire affected areas.
In 2023, the Board of Carbon County Commissioners permitted Emergency Manager Lenny Layman to use grant money to purchase six wireless weather stations to be installed in the Mullen burn scar. The weather stations monitor precipitation in the burn scar and provide real-time information to the National Weather Service. The collected data will allow the agency to ground proof its weather predictions in remote parts of Carbon and Albany County.
With a little help, Emergency Manager Layman installed the weather stations at remote locations in and around the Mullen burn scar last spring.
Speaking at the February 18th Board of Commissioners meeting, National Weather Service Senior Hydrologist Tony Anderson said the information collected last summer shows that the burn scar is no longer in danger of flash flooding.
Anderson said most of the rain gauges used by the National Weather Service can only relay information once an hour. However, Carbon County’s weather stations have the option to transmit every five minutes. The senior hydrologist stated that the increased frequency of transmissions significantly enhances his agency’s ability to issue flash flood warnings.
Anderson said that in 2023, the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission issued a report calling for additional post-fire precipitation monitoring. Thanks to the efforts of the board of commissioners and Emergency Manager Lenny Laymen, Carbon County is now at the forefront of the push for increased flash flood forecasting.
Since the Mullen burn scar is now considered fully recovered, Anderson said the weather stations are no longer needed to predict flash floods.
With minimal adjustments, the rain gauges can be deployed in other Wyoming counties, increasing the National Weather Service’s ability to forecast precipitation in areas recently damaged by fires.
Anderson said that the weather stations installed in Carbon County are portable and relatively easy to set up and operate from scratch. Their ease of operation means that they can be quickly deployed following, or even during a fire, when flash flooding is most likely to occur.
Emergency Manager Lenny Layman informed the board of county commissioners that he is working with the Wyoming Department of Homeland Security on a protocol to allow other counties to request the weather stations. Layman explained that the state agency will ensure other counties are aware of the rain gauges and will reimburse Carbon County for any damage to the equipment.
In the meantime, Layman said he and Senior Hydrologist Anderson are considering deploying the weather stations in different areas of the state. Currently, the stations are only set up to communicate with the National Weather Service’s Cheyenne office. Relocating the gauges will ensure that other National Weather Service offices are prepared to use the monitors in the future.
Layman said Sheridan County is attempting to purchase its own rain monitoring weather stations to install in the Elk Fire burn scar in northern Wyoming.
