Wildland fire typologies and extreme temperatures in NE Spain

Abstract

Understanding instrumental factors dealing with the development of large wildland fires is a need. Fire spread typologies and extreme temperature days were studied in the 1978-2012 period in Aragón (NE Spain). Temperature was examined at 850 hPa to characterize the low troposphere state and wildfires were grouped in three fire spread typologies: convective fires, wind-driven fires and topography-driven fires. The analysis of wildland fire propagation typologies revealed that convective fires burned the majority of total area burned, resulting in the larger and the most closely typology related to high temperature days (HTDs). Drought Code (DC) correlation with HTDs and wildland fire size was weak.

Keywords

• Wildland Fire
• Fire Spread Patterns
• Forestry
• Heat Waves
• Climate Change