Climate-induced variations in global wildfire danger from 1979 to 2013

W. Matt Jolly (), Mark A. Cochrane, Patrick H. Freeborn, Zachary A. Holden, Timothy J. Brown, Grant J. Williamson and David M. J. S. Bowman
Additional contact information
W. Matt Jolly: US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory
Mark A. Cochrane: Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence (GSCE), South Dakota State University
Patrick H. Freeborn: US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory
Zachary A. Holden: US Forest Service Region 1
Timothy J. Brown: Desert Research Institute (DRI), Western Regional Climate Center
Grant J. Williamson: School of Biological Sciences, The University of Tasmania
David M. J. S. Bowman: School of Biological Sciences, The University of Tasmania

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Climate strongly influences global wildfire activity, and recent wildfire surges may signal fire weather-induced pyrogeographic shifts. Here we use three daily global climate data sets and three fire danger indices to develop a simple annual metric of fire weather season length, and map spatio-temporal trends from 1979 to 2013. We show that fire weather seasons have lengthened across 29.6 million km2 (25.3%) of the Earth’s vegetated surface, resulting in an 18.7% increase in global mean fire weather season length. We also show a doubling (108.1% increase) of global burnable area affected by long fire weather seasons (>1.0 σ above the historical mean) and an increased global frequency of long fire weather seasons across 62.4 million km2 (53.4%) during the second half of the study period. If these fire weather changes are coupled with ignition sources and available fuel, they could markedly impact global ecosystems, societies, economies and climate.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8537

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