Extreme fire weather hotspots and vulnerable electric powerlines identified through California climatology analysis
Abstract
Wildfires have been increasing in frequency and intensity across the Western United States. More specifically, the amount of burned area in California has increased by a factor of five from 1972-2018. Atmospheric warming induced by anthropogenic climate change is causing proliferated drying of wildfire fuels. The later arrival of winter precipitation combined with extreme autumn wind events also creates a prolonged fire season, exemplified by the massive 2017 and 2018 fires. These fatal fire years have prompted California utility companies to aggressively terminate power to millions of people during extreme fire weather, which causes vast societal disruptions. Instead of shutting down electricity, we think it would be more advantageous to increase the safety standards of vulnerable utility equipment. In this study, we use the ERA5 dataset to examine a 40-year (1979-2019) climatology of National Fire Danger Rating System indices (NFDRS) and Canadian Fire Weather Indexes (FWI) throughout the state of California. We analyze spatiotemporal variability of extreme fire danger and identify areas that have consistently experienced extreme fire weather. These areas are cross referenced with transmission and distribution powerlines to determine high risk regions. Safer equipment or vegetation management practices can then be employed to prevent future fires.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMA143.0013V
- Keywords:
-
- 3307 Boundary layer processes;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3322 Land/atmosphere interactions;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3379 Turbulence;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3390 Wildland fire model;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES