[Excerpted from text] Foresters have always recognized the importance of the relationship between weather and forest fires in the West. For a number of years after organized fire suppression was instituted, the relative importance of the various weather factors upon fire suppression during the fire season was unknown, or at best, guessed at.

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