Increasing western US forest wildfire activity: sensitivity to changes in the timing of spring
Advanced Search
Select up to three search categories and corresponding keywords using the fields to the right. Refer to the Help section for more detailed instructions.

Search our Collections & Repository

All these words:

For very narrow results

This exact word or phrase:

When looking for a specific result

Any of these words:

Best used for discovery & interchangable words

None of these words:

Recommended to be used in conjunction with other fields

Language:

Dates

Publication Date Range:

to

Document Data

Title:

Document Type:

Library

Collection:

Series:

People

Author:

Help
Clear All

Query Builder

Query box

Help
Clear All

For additional assistance using the Custom Query please check out our Help Page

i

Increasing western US forest wildfire activity: sensitivity to changes in the timing of spring

  • 2016

  • By Westerling, Anthony LeRoy ORCID ICON IMG
  • Source: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 371(1696), 20150178
Filetype[PDF-1.12 MB]


Details You May Also Like

Details:

  • Journal Title:
    Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
  • Personal Author:
    Westerling, Anthony LeRoy ORCID ICON IMG
  • NOAA Program & Office:
    OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research)
  • Description:
    Prior work shows western US forest wildfire activity increased abruptly in the mid-1980s. Large forest wildfires and areas burned in them have continued to increase over recent decades, with most of the increase in lightning-ignited fires. Northern US Rockies forests dominated early increases in wildfire activity, and still contributed 50% of the increase in large fires over the last decade. However, the percentage growth in wildfire activity in Pacific northwestern and southwestern US forests has rapidly increased over the last two decades. Wildfire numbers and burned area are also increasing in non-forest vegetation types. Wildfire activity appears strongly associated with warming and earlier spring snowmelt. Analysis of the drivers of forest wildfire sensitivity to changes in the timing of spring demonstrates that forests at elevations where the historical mean snow-free season ranged between two and four months, with relatively high cumulative warm-season actual evapotranspiration, have been most affected. Increases in large wildfires associated with earlier spring snowmelt scale exponentially with changes in moisture deficit, and moisture deficit changes can explain most of the spatial variability in forest wildfire regime response to the timing of spring. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’.
  • Keywords:
  • Source:
    Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 371(1696), 20150178
  • DOI:
  • ISSN:
    0962-8436;1471-2970;
  • Format:
    PDF
  • Publisher:
    The Royal Society
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • Funding:
    Grant no. NA11OAR4310150
  • Rights Information:
    Other
  • Compliance:
    Library
  • Main Document Checksum:
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:

Supporting Files

  • No Additional Files

More +

You May Also Like

Checkout today's featured content at repository.library.noaa.gov

Version 3.26