This paper contrasts the two most important factors driving large fires: fuel-dominated vs. wind-dominated wildfires.

Fire Behavior Portal
The fire behavior topic page contains resources and activities related to the study and management of the direction, spread and intensity of wildland fire.
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Wildland Fire Library (firelibrary.org)
The Wildland Fire Library (firelibrary.org) is a collection of long-term assessments, fire progressions, fire behavior reports, and other documents and resources to support fire modeling and assessment of long-duration fires. Each file is tied to some event with a location, a start date, and background information. This site is operated by Rick Stratton and Jim Edmonds of the USFS National Office.
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Recent advances in high-performance computing (HPC) have promoted the creation of standardized remotely sensed products that map annual vegetation disturbance through two primary methods: (1) conventional approaches that integrate remote sensing-...
This research quantifies forest structure and examines how post-fire succession alters pine-oak composition, group-gap spatial structure, and wildfire resilience in an old-growth ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forest that was resilient to recent...
Litter flammability is an important and often overlooked component of understanding the role of fire in the environment. Litter flammability traits have the potential to influence important fire behavior and effects, including duff consumption,...
A presentation recorded at the 7th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress.
A presentation recorded at the 7th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress.
A presentation recorded at the 7th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress.
Structure of vegetation significantly influences its flammability and resulting fire spread. Despite considerable amount of laboratory studies, experimental works carried out with full plant specimens, representative of field conditions, are still...
The incident wind velocity in a forest fire is one of the main factors affecting fire spread. Although buoyancy due to the fire heat release modifies the wind field, the standard procedure for fire simulation takes the undisturbed wind field, computed...
Fire activity has a huge impact on human lives. Different models have been proposed to predict fire activity, which can be classified into global and regional ones. Global fire models focus on longer timescale simulations and can be very complex....
University of Wollongong
The Professor/Associate Professor and Director in Bushfire Risk Management leads and fosters excellence in research on fire science, environmental management, climate change and natural hazards, and its application into high-level policy development to improve bushfire risk management. The position is the Director of the Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires (CERMB) and the NSW Bushfire Risk Management Research Hub (BRMRH). These successful research groups are renowned for their work in engaging with government and industry partners to develop cost-effective strategies to mitigate the risks that bushfires pose to people, property and the environment.
Text of the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) statement:
Climate change has already had significant consequences in the global wildfire reality, affecting citizens as well as the global wildland fire community. Many key issues of importance to the IAWF - including firefighter and civilian safety, fire management expenses, changing weather patterns, natural role of fire, fire regimes and ecosystem succession, as well as the wildland urban interface - all require recognition of the role of climate change.
Globally, we regularly see new reports about the “worst”, “largest”, “most expensive”, and “deadliest” fires and fire seasons. In 2019 and 2018, striking headlines read “Arctic on Fire” (Sweden, Russia, Greenland, Canada and Alaska), and the most expensive and largest fire years were recorded in 2018 in California and British Columbia, respectively, breaking the previous records set in 2017. The Camp Fire (CA, 2018), Attica Greece (2018), Black Saturday Australia (2009), and Portugal (2017) fires were all ranked amongst the top 11 deadliest fires in the last 100 years.
Under current climate change scenarios, fire regimes will change in terms of increases in burned area, severity, fire season length, frequency, and ignitions from lightning. Many parts of the world have already experienced an increase in record breaking temperatures and recurring droughts that have led to shifts in wildland fire. There is already evidence of climate-driven fire regime change in the Northern Hemisphere upper latitudes with fire risk increasing in non-traditional fire-prone countries. The consequences of human actions are here today, not in some distant future, and these are alarming and, most important, escalating.
The IAWF encourages all countries to emphasize increased international fire training and to implement easier cross-border sharing of professional fire management resources for suppression and prescribed fire opportunities. These will lessen the irrationally heavy burden any single country will have to carry to manage extreme fire seasons. Homes and communities must be better planned and built, so they are increasingly fire resistant and more adapted to natural disasters of all types. Health impacts of fires have long-term consequences, not only those that are immediate from the flames but also those from smoke and toxins, and these must be considered when planning and managing for future wildland fires. Wildfires and smoke do not recognize borders. As the global community tries to manage the new wildfire challenges, it is incumbent on everyone to prepare to support international neighbours in protecting lives and communities from fires and their impacts.
IAWF Vice-President Toddi Steelman recently said in Wildfire magazine (August 2019) that “Recent extreme weather events have catalysed public belief in, and concern about, climate change, and boosted public support for government actions to reduce its harmful impacts. This gives us a window of opportunity when conditions are right to make great strides on climate if we are strategic about it.” This window of opportunity requires people having the knowledge and political will to act now. Our global scientific community needs to publicly share knowledge learned about patterns of extreme wildland fire and weather, as well as how climate change is associated with these patterns. Our global fire management community needs to leverage its credibility to share its experiences about how climate change and its role in extreme weather is playing out in their day to day work environments. Connecting extreme weather events to real on-the-ground consequences can help more people understand how climate impacts are affecting us all.
No upcoming events.
The conference theme is "Fuels of Today - Fire Behavior of Tomorrow" Understanding Fire Behavior and Fuels for Sound Decision Making and Effective Management
This conference will provide government and nongovernment professionals at all levels a...
Presenters:
Todd Hawbaker, Ph.D., US Geological Survey, Denver, CO
Casey Teske, Ph.D., Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, FL
Webinar Description:
Complete and accurate burned area...
Organized by the Alaska Fire Modeling and Analysis Committee. Presented by Jennifer Jenkins, BLM Alaska.
Content: Locations and processes for acquiring data used in WFDSS for fire behavior modeling
- Points
- Perimeters ...
Researchers investigated the influence of brush cutting and prescribed fire on soil heating levels relevant to restoration goals. Preliminary results support a growing body of evidence that high subsurface moisture and low soil temperatures of late...
Presented by: Wade Steady, M.S. Candidate, Natural Resources
This workshop consists of two intense days of entertaining hands-on activities for teaching students about wildland fire behavior, ecology, management and more. Goals include:
- Engage in activities from the Sierra Nevada FIRE WORKS...
What will you learn?
This presentation introduces a new line of research in our laboratory; one examining the role that nonforest plays in the wildfire resilience of inland montane forests. In past work, we were consistently...
The dates of this training are: March 30-April 13, 2019.
Objectives: To conducta series of controlled burns on The Nature Conservancy’s Niobrara Valley Preservetoprovide experiential learning opportunities to participants.
...In association with the Interagency Spring Fire Operations Meeting
2019 Spring Fire Science Workshop:
Thesis Defense by Peter Noble, M.S. Candidate, University of Idaho College of Natural Resources
Major Professor: Dr. Travis B. Paveglio