Released in December 2024 by the USDA Forest Service Fire Sciences Laboratory, WindNinja v3.11.2 (x64) is the latest stable build of the world’s most widely used diagnostic wind model for fire behavior analysts, incident commanders, and researchers.
Key Highlights
- Mass-Conserving Physics – Solves non-neutral, terrain-influenced winds at 10–100 m resolution in minutes, even on laptops.
- New Diurnal Slope Flow Option – Automatic day/night upslope/downslope winds when no weather station data is available (ideal for remote incidents).
- Fire Weather Zone (FWZ) Integration – Direct pull of RAWS/NWS forecast data with one click for CONUS, Alaska, and Hawaii.
- OpenFOAM CFD Backend – Optional high-fidelity solver for extreme terrain (canyons, ridges) with up to 5× more accuracy than momentum-only runs.
- KML/KMZ Export – Wind arrows and speed rasters instantly viewable in Google Earth, FLARE, IFTDSS, and WFDSS.
- Batch Mode & Python API – Run hundreds of scenarios automatically; full scripting support for custom fire-modeling pipelines.
- Bug Fixes & Speed – 30 % faster domain initialization, fixed memory leak on very large domains (>100 km²), and improved stability on Windows 11.
System Requirements
- Windows 10/11 64-bit
- 8 GB RAM minimum (16 GB+ recommended for large domains)
- Any modern GPU (OpenCL support for speed)
- 500 MB free disk space