moisture codes of the canadian forest fire weather index ... · the canadian forest fire weather...

Moisture codes of the Canadian Forest FireWeather Index System could be used to forecast

the flammability of key moorland fuels

Roger Grau1 G. Matt Davies2 Susan Waldron1

Colin Legg3

1School of Geographical and Earth SciencesUniversity of Glasgow

2School of Environment and Natural ResourcesThe Ohio State University

3School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh

11th November 2015

The Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System

I Underlies Met Office Fire Severity Index (MOFSI)

I Underlies European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS)

I Daily weather data to estimate Fuel Moisture Content (FMC)

Weather data (Temp, RH, Rain, Wind)

Fire behaviour indices

Structure of the FWI System

Fuel Moisture Content controls fire behaviour

Fire behaviourFMC

Live Dead Moss/litter Peat

Ignition X X

Spread X

Severity X X

Dead FMC controls fire ignition in prescribed fires

Source: FireBeaters Phase I Report (2007)

Moss/litter FMC controls fire ignition (wildfires)

Source: FireBeaters Phase I Report (2007)

Live FMC controls fire Rate of Spread

I RoS depends on wind speed, fuel load, and canopy FMC

12 14 16 18 20 22

05

10

Wind speed (Km / h)

RoS

(m

/ m

in)

70 % FMC 90 % FMC110 % FMC

Adapted from Davies et al. (2009)

M/L layer FMC controls fire severity

I Ground fuels available for burning when FMC < 100 %

Post-fire smouldering in Braehead Moss (South Lanarkshire)

M/L layer FMC controls fire severity

I Increased fire-induced peat heating when low M/L layer FMC

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

050

150

250

time since start of the fire (min)

Tem

pera

ture

(°C

)

Low M/L FMCHigh M/L FMC

Peat FMC controls fire severity

I Peat ignition possible below 125 % FMC

Rothiemurchus fire, July 2006, Scotland. Source: Rein et al. (2008).

Aim of the study

Is FWI doing a good job in estimating FMC in heather moorlands?

I Relate FWI codes to FMC heather moorland fuels

- Live heather- Dead heather- M/L layer- Peat

FWI codes unrelated to live FMC

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0 100 200 300 400 500

4060

8012

016

0

DC

FM

C (

% d

ry)Live heather

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●

winterspringsummerautumn

FWI codes unrelated to live FMC

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0 100 200 300 400 500

4060

8012

016

0

DC

FM

C (

% d

ry)Live heather

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FFMC unrelated to elevated dead FMC

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50 60 70 80 90

1520

2530

35

FFMC

FM

C (

% d

ry)Dead heather

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FFMC related to M/L layer FMC

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30 40 50 60 70 80 90

010

030

050

070

0

FFMC

FM

C (

% d

ry)

M/L layer

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DC related to Peat MC

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5015

025

035

0

DC

FM

C (

% d

ry)

Glen Tanar

DC related to Peat MC

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5015

025

035

0F

MC

(%

dry

)

Glen Tanar

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0 100 200 300 400

200

250

300

350

DC

FM

C (

% d

ry)

Braehead Moss

Summary and conclusions

I Live and dead heather FMC unrelated to FWI MCI Good correlation between M/L layer and FFMC

Important for ignitionFFMC of 80 for M/L layer FMC < 100 %

I Good correlation between peat FMC and DC

Important for fire severityDC of 400 for Peat FMC < 125 %

Acknowledgements

I Funding and support

I Support

moisture codes of the canadian forest fire weather index ... · the canadian forest fire weather...

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