An Assessment of the Role of Anthropogenic Climate Change in the Alaska Fire Season of 2015

Details

• Journal Title:
  Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
• Personal Author:
  Partain, James L. ; Alden, Sharon ; Strader, Heidi ; Bhatt, Uma S. ; Bieniek, Peter A. ; Brettschneider, Brian R. ; Walsh, John E. ; Lader, Rick T. ; Olsson, Peter Q. ; Rupp, T. Scott ; Thoman, Richard L. ; York, Alison D. ; Ziel, Robert H.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; CPO (Climate Program Office) ; NESDIS (National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service) ; NCEI (National Centers for Environmental Information) ; NWS (National Weather Service) ; AR (Alaska Region) ; CIFAR (Cooperative Institute for Alaska Research)
• Description:
  The 2015 Alaska fire season burned 5.1
  
  million acres, the second largest burned area since
  
  1940, exceeded only by the 2004 Alaska fire season
  
  when 6.2 million acres burned (Fig. 4.1a). Despite
  
  a below normal end-of-winter snowpack and an
  
  unseasonably warm spring with earlier snowmelt,
  
  which dried fuels early in the season, scattered
  
  showers and cool temperatures kept 2015 fire activity
  
  near normal through early June. During the first
  
  half of June, several days of maximum temperatures
  
  exceeded 30˚C, relative humidity (RH) values were
  
  in the teens, and long daylight hours quickly dried
  
  surface and subsurface (duff) forest-floor fuels.
  
  
• Keywords:
  Climatic Changes Fire
• Source:
  Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 97(12), S14-S18
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0149.1
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  Grant no. NA16OAR4310142
• Place as Subject:
  Alaska
• Rights Information:
  Other
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:232eb6d02178226d78dfd570acf7c7b18316d055be1b4d07e919622da3e1d6cd
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/28370/noaa_28370_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.07 MB ]