Climate and Fire Interactions
How do temperature, relative humidity and vapor pressure deficit relate to fire timing and seasonality?
Climate change presents increased potential for very large fires in the contiguous United States
For the southwestern warm deserts, they projected a shift in the timing of fire season and very large fire potential to earlier in the year due to increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation during the Spring.
Relationships between climate and macroscale area burned in the western United States
Antecedent climate factors were more important for early season wildfire activity whereas fire season conditions were consistently stronger predictors of area burned and fire potential concurrent with the fire season. Specifically, when water-balance or fire danger indices were integrated over longer periods of time, their predictive power increased meaning they were best at predicting later or end-of-season conditions.
Length of the fire season in a changing climate
The authors found a significant shift in both an earlier beginning and a later end to the fire season for the 2 X CO2 scenario across all regions. They predicted an increase of the fire season of almost 30 days on average. Furthermore, the authors mention that this would result in a longer period of increased temperatures during the fire season, and therefore, an increase in fire activity across the region.