Effects of Extreme Wind Variability on Modeled Wildfire Spread
Abstract
Extreme winds in Southern California significantly influence wildfire spread. In particular, coastal Santa Barbara County (SBC) has experienced numerous wildfires that have rapidly advanced into highly-populated areas due to strong, downslope wind events. The complex topography of SBC presents additional challenges for wildfire management and complicates the understanding of relationships between severe fire weather and wildfire spread. Furthermore, the few roads to evacuate this region have been subject to closure during wildfires, increasing the need for advances in fire spread modeling. This study utilizes models to recreate wildfire events and produce "what-if" scenarios during varied extreme weather conditions. We produce wildfire probability maps to identify regions most prone to wildfire under severe fire weather conditions, which may ultimately lead to improvements in resource allocation and increased resilience of local communities. This research has been supported by NSF-PREEVENTS ICER - 1664173.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.A23J2952Z
- Keywords:
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- 3379 Turbulence;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3390 Wildland fire model;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 4301 Atmospheric;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4313 Extreme events;
- NATURAL HAZARDS