Strategic Weather Monitoring: Idaho Power’s Fight Against Wildfires

No matter how much utilities harden the grid, though, wildfire risk will always be present. One of Idaho Power’s best tools for reducing that risk is a precise understanding of the conditions that influence wildfire behavior. That’s why Idaho Power is investing in stations to pinpoint temperature, wind speed and other weather variables at dozens of locations across its service area. These stations, combined with fuel monitoring and short-term weather forecasts, help the company maintain situational awareness during wildfire season and make informed operational decisions to reduce risk.

“These stations really zero in on what’s happening at a granular level,” Idaho Power Atmospheric Science Supervisor Derek Blestrud said. “Instead of telling us what’s happening in, say, a 100-square-mile area, we know weather details down to a few feet around the station. That’s a big deal for Idaho Power because our service area has a lot of topographical variation — forests, mountains, grassy desert areas and all the interfaces between them.”

Idaho Power began installing weather stations in 2023. There were just a handful at first. Today, Idaho Power has more than 100 across its service area, and the company is planning to install another 60 this year.Idaho Power places each one strategically, primarily in or near areas where broader weather patterns, fuels and topography elevate the likelihood of a wildfire or the damage a fire is likely to cause.

The stations are typically mounted on Idaho Power-owned monopoles. Each one is outfitted with temperature and humidity sensors and an anemometer to measure wind speed. They’re unobtrusive enough that they might not be noticeable if one does not know what to look for.

During wildfire season, Idaho Power’s meteorologists monitor data the weather stations provide and communicate it to operations leaders. This information helps inform operational decisions such as disabling reclosers, increasing line sensitivity or initiating a public safety power shutoff (PSPS).

“When you make a decision as weighty as whether to turn off customers’ power to prevent a wildfire, you want the most trustworthy data available,” Idaho Power Wildfire Mitigation Director Jon Axtman said. “Our weather stations give us that.”
Idaho Power makes data from the weather stations available to the public. Anyone with an internet connection can check the weather at any station in the company’s network.

“The National Weather Service folks tell us they get excited every time a new station’s data pops up,” Blestrud said. “Besides the real-time data they’re getting, the accumulation of that data over time enables them to flesh out their longer-term weather models with a degree of detail that was impossible just a few years ago.”