Wildfire Basics

Under construction.

See the Schedule tab above, to find out when each fire-basics item is assigned.

Item	Topic	Learning Goals. By the end of this section, you will be able to ...	Info / Photo
fb0	Glossary, Symbols, etc.	Not a Learning Goal, but handy references regarding the jargon and symbols used for wildfires. BC Wildfire Glossary. Symbols from wikifire. CIFFC Wildland Fire Glossary. Nova Scotia DNRR Glossary.
fb1	Intro to wildfires	List 3 of the major wildfires that affected western Canada since year 2000, and describe what weather conditions they had in common (if any).
fb2	Wildfire triangles	Explain why fires need fuel, oxygen and ignition/heat. Also explain the roles of season, weather, and topography. NWT has a good overview.
fb3	Fire-behavior ranking	For different-intensity fires, explain how to classify them into ranks, and describe how they are fought. Also, estimate ranks based on fire appearance and behavior.
fb4	Forest maps & layers	Locate on a map the main ecological zones and forest types, and describe the layers of deep fuels (e.g., peat), duff, surface, understory, and crown for temperate and boreal forests.
fb5	Fire-danger ratings	Compare and contrast the main components of the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS), the US National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS), and Australia's McArthur Mark 5 Forest Fire Danger Index.
fb6	Fuel characteristics	Explain why fuel (e.g., tree) type, amount, availability, arrangement, quantity, spacing, diameter, and moisture are important in classifying potential fire behavior. Consider additional aspects of forest structure. Skim the NWCG web page on fuels. See how fuel errors cause errors in fire spread.
fb7	Ignition & Lightning	Explain what is needed for wildfires to ignite, and compare natural vs. human sources of ignition. Access and utilize lightning detection networks and lightning forecast sites.
fb8	Moisture content of fuels	Explain the meaning of fuel moisture content, what range of values it can have, how it responds to atmospheric relative humidity** and other weather variables, and what critical value is needed for combustion. BC Wildfire measurement of fuel moisture.
fb9	Precursor / Antecedent Conditions	Explain why conditions such as drought in the preceeding year, months, and days can affect current fire conditions. For example, see BC Wildfire's discussion of the 2023 fire season.
fb10	Fire Weather Index (FWI) - Overview	List the 6 main modules of the FWI, and describe an general terms what each module does.
fb11	FWI details - part 1: Moisture Codes	Calculate and use the Fine Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC), Duff Moisture Code (DMC), Drought Code (DC).
fb12	Fire weather metrics - Part 1	Explain how the following variables affect wildfires: temperature, moisture (relative humidity, rain, snow), wind (speed, direction, angle relative to slope), and lightning. [Although tailored for the US Fire Danger system, the US National Park Service has an excellent overview of most of these factors.]
fb13	Fire weather metrics - Part 2	Explain how wildfires are affected by insolation, and how insolation varies by hour of day, day of year, and shading by terrain, clouds, and smoke. (See J. Coen 2003 Wildfire Weather, p2586-2596 in Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences) Under construction.
fb14	FWI details - Part 2: BUI & ISI	Use and calculate the Build-Up Index (BUI) and the Initial Spread Index (ISI), and explain their dependencies on weather.
fb15	FWI details - Part 3: FWI & DSR	Use and calculate the Fire Weather Index (FWI) and the Daily Severity Rating (DSR), and explain their dependencies on weather.
fb16	Other fire-danger indices	Use and calculate Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) and Hot-Dry-Windy Index (HDWI). Use and calculate the Crossover Index (CI) and the Haines Index, and explain their dependencies on weather.
fb17	Fire Behavior Prediction (FBP) system - Overview	Describe the 5 main types of inputs, and the four primary outputs, of the FBP system, and discuss how they are related to Byram's equation for fire intensity.
fb18	Fuel types of the FBP	Give examples of several of the 16 fuel types of the Canadian Fire Behavior Prediction System, show on a map where those fuels are found.
fb19	FBP - Part 1: ROS	Explain what weather, fuel, and terrain factors affect the flame-front Rate of Spread (ROS).
fb20	FBP - Part 2: HFI	Use and calculate the Surface Fuel Consumption (SFC), Crown Fraction Burned (CFB), Total Fuel Consumption (TFC), and Head Fire Intensity (HFI), and explain how they relate to fire and weather.
fb21	FBP - Part 3: Significance	Relate Head Fire Intensity (HFI) to fire behavior and to tactics for wildfire suppression.
fb22	Fire heat budget	Describe the physics of terms in the heat-budget equation, and calculate their values. Explain how to estimate fire intensity from satellite observed Fire Radiative Power (FRP).
fb23	FIRMS	Use NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) to get near-real time (and historic) fire hotspot info from satellites. Explain its utility and its limitations. Explain how active fires are detected using thermal anomalies observed by satellite.
fb24	GWIS	Describe what fire-related products are available from the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS). Explain how to use GWIS maps and charts.
fb25	FireWeather	Relate the real-time weather products on the FireWeather portion of firesmoke.ca to the real-time moisture codes and fire indices.
f26	Spring Dip	Explain the causes and timing of the "spring dip" increase in fire potential in Canada.
f27	CIFFC	Describe what information is available from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), and particularly from its Dashboard.
f28	WUI	Explain what the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) is, describe the 3 exposure conditions that cause the problem (WUI Cascadia video by Michael Gollner 2021), and explain what can we do about it.
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