Wildfires and the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index system for the Daxing'anling region of China

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 963 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaorui Tian ◽  
Douglas J. McRae ◽  
Jizhong Jin ◽  
Lifu Shu ◽  
Fengjun Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Coniferous Forest ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Burnt Area ◽  
Weather Index ◽  
Fire Weather Index

The Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) system was evaluated for the Daxing'anling region of northern China for the 1987–2006 fire seasons. The FWI system reflected the regional fire danger and could be effectively used there in wildfire management. The various FWI system components were classified into classes (i.e. low to extreme) for fire conditions found in the region. A total of 81.1% of the fires occurred in the high, very high and extreme fire danger classes, in which 73.9% of the fires occurred in the spring (0.1, 9.5, 33.3 and 33.1% in March, April, May and June). Large wildfires greater than 200 ha in area (16.7% of the total) burnt 99.2% of the total burnt area. Lightning was the main ignition source for 57.1% of the total fires. Result show that forest fires mainly occurred in deciduous coniferous forest (61.3%), grass (23.9%) and deciduous broad leaved forest (8.0%). A bimodal fire season was detected, with peaks in May and October. The components of FWI system were good indicators of fire danger in the Daxing'anling region of China and could be used to build a working fire danger rating system for the region.

scholarly journals Temporal variations and change in forest fire danger in Europe for 1960–2012

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1477-1490 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Venäläinen ◽  
N. Korhonen ◽  
O. Hyvärinen ◽  
N. Koutsias ◽  
F. Xystrakis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
National Level ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Fire Weather Index ◽  
Current Season ◽  
Forest Fire Danger

Abstract. Understanding how fire weather danger indices changed in the past and how such changes affected forest fire activity is important in a changing climate. We used the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI), calculated from two reanalysis data sets, ERA-40 and ERA Interim, to examine the temporal variation of forest fire danger in Europe in 1960–2012. Additionally, we used national forest fire statistics from Greece, Spain and Finland to examine the relationship between fire danger and fires. There is no obvious trend in fire danger for the time period covered by ERA-40 (1960–1999), whereas for the period 1980–2012 covered by ERA Interim, the mean FWI shows an increasing trend for southern and eastern Europe which is significant at the 99% confidence level. The cross correlations calculated at the national level in Greece, Spain and Finland between total area burned and mean FWI of the current season is of the order of 0.6, demonstrating the extent to which the current fire-season weather can explain forest fires. To summarize, fire risk is multifaceted, and while climate is a major determinant, other factors can contribute to it, either positively or negatively.

scholarly journals Comparison of Methods for the Assessment of Fire Danger in the Czech Republic

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 1285-1295 ◽  
Author(s):  
František Jurečka ◽  
Martin Možný ◽  
Jan Balek ◽  
Zdeněk Žalud ◽  
Miroslav Trnka
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Fire Event ◽  
Fire Weather Index ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Fire Danger Indices

The performance of fire indices based on weather variables was analyzed with a special focus on the Czech Republic. Three fire weather danger indices that are the basis of fire danger rating systems used in different parts of the world were assessed: the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI), Australian Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) and Finnish Forest Fire Index (FFI). The performance of the three fire danger indices was investigated at different scales and compared with actual fire events. First, the fire danger indices were analyzed for different land use types during the period 1956–2015. In addition, in the analysis, the three fire danger indices were compared with wildfire events during the period 2001–2015. The fire danger indices were also analyzed for the specific locality of the Bzenec area where a large forest fire event occurred in May 2012. The study also focused on the relationship between fire danger indices and forest fires during 2018 across the area of the Jihomoravský region. Comparison of the index values with real fires showed that the index values corresponded well with the occurrence of forest fires. The analysis of the year 2018 showed that the highest index values were reached on days with the greater fire occurrence. On days with 5 or 7 reported fires per day, the fire danger indices reached values between 3 and 4.

scholarly journals Updated Operational Implementation of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System in Ireland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Padraig Flattery ◽  
Klara Finkele ◽  
Paul Downes ◽  
Ferdia O'Leary ◽  
Ciaran Nugent
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fire ◽  
Index System ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Energy Output ◽  
Fire Intensity ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Reference Period ◽  
Weather Index ◽  
Fire Weather Index

<p>Since 2006 the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System (FWI) has been used operationally at Met Éireann to predict the risk of forest fires in Ireland (Walsh, S, 2006). Although only around 11% or ca 770,000 ha of the total land area of Ireland is afforested, there are also large areas of open mountain and peatlands that are covered in grasses, dwarfshrub and larger woody shrub type vegetation which can provide ready fuel for spring wildfires, when suitable conditions arise. Following winter, much of this vegetation is either dead or has a very low live moisture content, and the flammability of this vegetation can be readily influenced by prevailing weather, most especially following prolonged dry periods. The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine is the Forest Protection authority in Ireland and issues Fire Danger Notices as part of this work. These notices permit improved preparedness for fire responses and are based on information provided by Met Éireann on the current status of FWI and FWI components using observation data at synoptic stations and the predicted FWI for the next five days ahead based on numerical weather prediction input data.</p><p>The FWI is based on</p><ul><li>three different types of forest fuel, ie how quickly these dry out/get rewetted. These are the Fine Fuels Moisture Code (FFMC), the Duff Moisture Code (DMC) and the Drought Code (DC).</li> <li>components based on fire behaviour: the Initial Spread Index (ISI), the Build-up Index (BUI), and the Fire Weather Index (FWI) which represents fire intensity as energy output rate per unit length of fire front. It is then used to determine the Daily Severity Rating (DSR) of the fire danger. </li> </ul><p>Of these components, the FFMC and ISI components have been found to provide the most accurate indication of risk under Irish conditions, based on the fuels involved and ignition patterns observed to date.</p><p>The DSR was based on a climatology of 1971 to 2005 at the time of operational implantation of the FWI at Met Éireann. An updated climatology based on the new reference period of 1990 to 2020 will be shown as well as the change of the 98 percentiles of extreme rating using this new reference period.  </p><p><strong>Walsh, S.</strong> “Implementation in Ireland of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System.” In <em>Making Science Work on the Farm. A Workshop on Decision Support Systems for Irish Agriculture</em>, 120–126. Dublin: AGMET, 2007. </p>

Relationships between the moisture content of fine woody fuels in lodgepole pine slash and the Fine Fuel Moisture Code of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System

1988 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Trowbridge ◽  
M. C. Feller
Keyword(s):  
Moisture Content ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Index System ◽  
Lodgepole Pine ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Weather Index ◽  
Fire Weather Index ◽  
Moisture Contents

Unsuccessful attempts to ignite slash resulting from the mechanical knocking down of lodgepole pine in west central British Columbia led to a short-term investigation of the relationship between the Fine Fuel Moisture Code of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System and the moisture content of various fine fuel components <1 cm in diameter. Of the types of fuel sampled, the moisture contents of B.C. Forest Service fuel moisture sticks and aged slash were similar to, and well correlated (r = 0.79 and 0.81, respectively) with, the equivalent moisture content calculated from the Fine Fuel Moisture Code. The Fine Fuel Moisture Code was not designed to relate to the moisture content of uncured fuels. Thus, the moisture contents of fresh living slash (material from knocked down trees still attached to living roots) and of fresh dead slash (material unattached to living trees that had not yet experienced a complete fire season in which to fully cure) were poorly correlated with moisture content (r = 0.16 and 0.42, respectively). The moisture content of the progressively curing, needle-bearing fresh dead slash was relatively high at the beginning of the fire season, but became similar to the moisture content during the first half of July. This suggests that the Fine Fuel Moisture Code can also be used to predict the moisture content of such fine slash after these fuels have cured for approximately 3 months during the snow-free period.

Sensitivity of the CFFDRS Fire Weather Index parameters for Indian weather conditions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anasuya Barik ◽  
Somnath Baidya Roy
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Fire Hazard ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Weather Index ◽  
Climatic Zones ◽  
Fire Weather Index ◽  
Fire Model

&lt;p&gt;The Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS) is used to assess and predict the fire behavior in various forest ecosystems all over the world. The Fire Weather Index (FWI) module of the CFFDRS models the relationship between meteorology and forest fires. It was observed in our earlier study that the values of the FWI and its related parameters were considerably different from the other countries that use the model for their operational fire weather simulation. In this study we evaluate the model performance over Indian climate for a period of 10 years 1996-2005 under various weather scenarios. The daily meteorological data from ECMWF&amp;#8217;s ERA5 reanalysis has been used as inputs to the fire model and the active fire data from MODIS Terra and Aqua satellites over the study period has been used to evaluate the capability of model to simulate fire danger. As India has many different climatic zones, we evaluated the behavior fire model parameters over 5 forest zones namely Himalayan, Deciduous, Western Ghats, Thorn forests and North Eastern forests based on the Roy et al. 2016 Land Use Land Cover data and Koppen climatic zones.&amp;#160; The analysis was narrowed down over only the forest areas of the zones so as to remove any chances of including the non-forest fires detected by the satellite. Results show that the FWI shows a strong correlation with forest fires if the model is correctly spun up and appropriately calibrated. A spin up time of minimum 60 days was found to be appropriate for stabilization of FWI components like Duff Moisture Code (DMC) and Drought Code (DC). Sensitivity studies showed that temperature and relative humidity are the key controlling factors of forest fires over India and that the parameters depict high interannual seasonality due to relatively lower values during the Indian monsoon season.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This study is one of the first attempts to use fire models to simulate fire behavior over India. It can serve as a launchpad for further work on fire hazard prediction and effects of climate change on fire hazard in India.&lt;/p&gt;

Evaluation of the reliability of the high-resolution WRF fire danger forecasts in Poland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Gruszczynska ◽  
Alan Mandal ◽  
Grzegorz Nykiel ◽  
Tomasz Strzyzewski ◽  
Weronika Wronska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Fire Service ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Weather Index ◽  
Fire Weather Index

&lt;p&gt;Fires negatively affect the composition and structure of fauna and flora, as well as the quality of air, soils and water. They cause economic losses and pose a risk to human life. Poland is at the forefront of European countries in terms of forest fires. Therefore, Institute of Meteorology and Water Management - National Research Institute (IMWM-NIR) implemented fire danger forecast system based on high-resolution (2.5 km) Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model. Forecasted meteorological data are used to calculate parameters of Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System: Fire Weather Index (FWI), Initial Spread Index (ISI), Buildup Index (BUI), Fine Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC), Duff Moisture Code (DMC), and Drought Code (DC). Each parameter is presented in one of the classes corresponding to the fire danger &amp;#8211; from low to extreme. In this way, a daily 24- and 48-hour fire danger forecasts are generated for the whole area of Poland and presented on IMWM-NIR meteorological website (meteo.imgw.pl).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this presentation we show analyses of reliability of implemented FWI system. For this purpose, data reprocessing from March to September 2019 were made. Also data on fires occurrence on forest lands: time of occurrence, characteristics and location, from the resources of the State Fire Service were collected. Finally, for the selected period, we obtained a dataset of about 8 thousand events for which we assigned values of FWI parameters. Generally, based on our analysis, correlation between number of fires and averaged value of FWI amounted over 0.8. We found out, the correlation coefficient calculated for regions differ. The correlation is higher in central and northern Poland compared to the eastern part of the country, which also correspond to the number of fires. This may be related to the different forest structure - there is a higher proportion of broadleaf forests in the east. The comparison of 24- and 48-hour forecasts showed that they have similar reliability.&lt;/p&gt;

Estimation of Forest Fire Risk by Using Fire Weather Index in the MENA Region

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burcu Calda ◽  
Kamil Collu ◽  
Aytac Pacal ◽  
Mehmet Levent Kurnaz
Keyword(s):  
Observational Data ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Control Period ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Weather Index ◽  
Fire Weather Index ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Forest Fire Risk

&lt;p&gt;Forest fires are naturals in the Mediterranean ecosystems. However, in the last decade, the number of wildfires has significantly increased in the Mediterranean basin along with climate change. Therefore, forecasts of this region by using fire indices are crucial to take necessary precautions. In the present study, the projected changes for the period 2070 - 2099 concerning the control period 1971 - 2000 were used to estimate forest fire risk by the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI). RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 emission scenarios (IPCC) outputs of MPI-ESM-MR and HadGEM2-ES dynamically downscaled to 50 km for the CORDEX-MENA domain with the use of the RegCM4 were utilized. ERA-Interim observational data from ECMWF covering the period 1980-2012 were also used to test the performances of models. The output of MPI-ESM-MR gave more similar fire risk prediction with the reforecast of observational data (ERA-Interim). Thus, the MPI-ESM-MR model could be more suitable to estimate fire risk by FWI. According to future projection, forest fire risk will significantly increase throughout the region for the last 30 years of this century.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals Projection of Forest Fire Danger due to Climate Change in the French Mediterranean Region

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 4284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vassiliki Varela ◽  
Diamando Vlachogiannis ◽  
Athanasios Sfetsos ◽  
Stelios Karozis ◽  
Nadia Politi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Weather Index ◽  
Fire Weather Index ◽  
Future Time Period ◽  
Forest Fire Danger ◽  
Decision Support Process

Fire occurrence and behaviour in Mediterranean-type ecosystems strongly depend on the air temperature and wind conditions, the amount of fuel load and the drought conditions that drastically increase flammability, particularly during the summer period. In order to study the fire danger due to climate change for these ecosystems, the meteorologically based Fire Weather Index (FWI) can be used. The Fire Weather Index (FWI) system, which is part of the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS), has been validated and recognized worldwide as one of the most trusted and important indicators for meteorological fire danger mapping. A number of FWI system components (Fire Weather Index, Drought Code, Initial Spread Index and Fire Severity Rating) were estimated and analysed in the current study for the Mediterranean area of France. Daily raster-based data-sets for the fire seasons (1st May–31st October) of a historic and a future time period were created for the study area based on representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios, outputs of CNRM-SMHI and MPI-SMHI climate models. GIS spatial analyses were applied on the series of the derived daily raster maps in order to provide a number of output maps for the study area. The results portray various levels of changes in fire danger, in the near future, according to the examined indices. Number of days with high and very high FWI values were found to be doubled compared to the historical period, in particular in areas of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) region and Corsica. The areas with high Initial Spread Index and Seasonal Spread Index values increased as well, forming compact zones of high fire danger in the southern part of the study area, while the Drought Code index did not show remarkable changes. The current study on the evolution of spatial and temporal distribution of forest fire danger due to climate change can provide important knowledge to the decision support process for prevention and management policies of forest fires both at a national and EU level.

scholarly journals APLICACIÓN DEL ÍNDICE METEOROLÓGICO DE INCENDIOS CANADIENSE EN UN PARQUE NACIONAL DEL CENTRO DE MÉXICO

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 25-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourdes Villers-Ruiz ◽  
Emilio Chuvieco ◽  
Inmaculada Aguado
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fire ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Rating System ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Weather Index ◽  
Fire Weather Index ◽  
Fire Danger Rating System ◽  
Para Determinar ◽  
Forest Fire Danger

Entre los sistemas de alerta temprana de incendios forestales destaca el desarrollado por el Servicio Forestal de Canadá, denominado Fire Weather Index (FWI). Con el fin de contribuir a la creación de un sistema de alerta temprana, se utilizó este índice para determinar las condiciones de peligro a incendios en el Parque Nacional Malinche a partir de una serie de datos diarios de enero 2004 a octubre 2009 de cinco estaciones meteorológicas automáticas instaladas en el parque a una altitud de 3,000 m, se hicieron los cálculos de los elementos que contiene el índice; para ello, se empleó la versión automatizada del Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System. Se realizaron correlaciones y se crearon cuatro categorías con los valores de los componentes, según la frecuencia de incendios y el área siniestrada. También, se señalaron, los valores de temperatura máxima y mínima, humedad relativa y lluvia por categoría. Se constituyeron los umbrales mínimos de gran peligrosidad a incendios para cada uno de los elementos. En el caso del código de humedad de los combustibles finos, el umbral se estableció en 80 puntos; de superarse este valor, el número de incendios por día se incrementa sustancialmente. El código de sequía, el Índice de dispersión inicial del fuego; así como, el Índice acumulado fueron los más significativos en relación a la frecuencia de incendios, por lo que se calculó la probabilidad de estos eventos, para ciertos intervalos de los elementos considerados.

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