Critical fire weather patterns typically focus on synoptic conditions which produce strong winds, low relative humidities, and above normal temperatures (Shroeder et. al). Important as these conditions are in creating an environment conducive to increased fire behavior and rapid fire spread, without a fire, dry, windy, and anomalously warm conditions generally pose little threat to the protection of life and property. Since most wildland fires result from lightning, most notably dry lightning, this is the most important forecasted weather element to federal, state, and local fire management agencies and results in critical decisions for allocating wildland firefighting resources. Thunderstorms provide the sparks necessary to ignite numerous new wildfires, potentially putting a severe strain on wildland firefighting resources, which are used to keep these initially small wildfires from becoming large ones. Only once these lightning caused wildfires are started do critical fire weather patterns relating to warm, dry, and windy conditions become important. Therefore, it is more beneficial for fire management officials to be informed of critical fire weather patterns which lead to lightning induced wildfire outbreaks. To better forecast lightning in the Western Great Basin (Nevada) and portions of eastern California, major lightning induced wildfire outbreaks were analyzed from a nine year data set to find correlations between the number of new wildfire starts and synoptic patterns. The results of the investigation found two synoptic patterns to account for all 17 of the major wildfire outbreaks over the nine year sample period.

[This publication is referenced in the "Synthesis of knowledge of extreme fire behavior: volume I for fire managers" (Werth et al 2011).]