Initial indexes for the Canadian Forest Fire Weather System require specific meteorological inputs
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The provided sources confirm the existence and general purpose of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System and note that meteorological conditions are a key driver of wildfire activity, but they do not list the specific meteorological inputs required for its initial indexes.
The Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System (FWI System) is a weather-based fire danger rating system developed by the Canadian Forest Service. It is a component of the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS) and is used to assess the effects of weather on fuel moisture and potential fire behaviour. The system uses air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and precipitation to ca
The Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System (FWI System) is a weather-based fire danger rating system developed by the Canadian Forest Service. It is a component of the Canadian Forest…
In the FWI1987 formulation, the system is calculated from weather observations taken once each day at noon local standard time. The four weather inputs are air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and precipitation accumulated over the previous 24 hours. The system first calculates three fuel moisture codes: the Fine Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC), Duff Moisture Code (DMC) and Drought Code (DC). These are numerical ratings that track changes in the moisture of different forest-floor fuel layers from day to day. Higher values indicate drier conditions.
The three moisture codes are used to calculate the fire behaviour indices. The FFMC is combined with wind speed to produce the Initial Spread Index (ISI), while the DMC and DC are combined to produce the Buildup Index (BUI). The ISI and BUI are then combined to produce the Fire Weather Index (FWI), a numerical rating of potential fire intensity.
The standard FWI System uses a generalized mature pine forest as its reference fuel type, allowing fire danger to be compared using a consistent fuel model rather than the vegetation at each location. Fuel-specific fire behaviour is treated separately in the Canadian Forest Fire Behaviour Prediction System (FBP System). For the DMC and DC, the month of the year is used to apply seasonal day-length adjustments.
Wildfire is an integral part of the Earth system, but at the same time it can pose serious threats to human society and to certain types of terrestrial ecosystems. Meteorological conditions are a key driver of wildfire activity and extent, which led to the emergence of the use of fire danger indices that depend solely on weather conditions. The Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) is a widely used fire danger index of this kind. Here, we evaluate how well the FWI, its components, and the climate variables from which it is derived, correlate with observation-based burned area (BA) for a variety of world regions. We use a novel technique, according to which monthly BA are grouped by size for each Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED) pyrographic region. We find strong correlations of BA anomalies with the FWI anomalies, as well as with the underlying deviations from their climatologies for the four climate variables from which FWI is estimated, namely, temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, and wind. We quantify the relative sensitivity of the observed BA to each of the four climate variables, finding that this relationship strongly depends on the pyrographic region and land type. Our results indicate that the BA anomalies strongly correlate with FWI anomalies at a GFED region scale, compared to the strength of the correlation with individual climate variables. Additionally, among the individual climate variables that comprise the FWI, relative humidity and temperature are
Wildfire is an integral part of the Earth system, but at the same time it can pose serious threats to human society and to certain types of terrestrial ecosystems. Meteorological conditions are a key driver of wildfire activity and extent, which led to the emergence of the use of fire danger indices that depend solely on weather conditions. The Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) is a widely used fire danger index of this kind. Here, we evaluate how well the FWI, its components, and the climate variables from which it is derived, correlate with observation-based burned area (BA) for a variety of world regions. We use a novel technique, according to which monthly BA are grouped by size for each Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED) pyrographic region. We find strong correlations of BA anomalies with the FWI anomalies, as well as with the underlying deviations from their climatologies for the four climate variables from which FWI is estimated, namely, temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, and wind. We quantify the relative sensitivity of the observed BA to each of the four climate variables, finding that this relationship strongly depends on the pyrographic region and land type. Our results indicate that the BA anomalies strongly correlate with FWI anomalies at a GFED region scale, compared to the strength of the correlation with individual climate variables. Additionally, among the individual climate variables that comprise the FWI, relative humidity and temperature are
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