Textbooks and References
Under construction.
Textbooks
No book is required to be purchased, but the free book listed in this section will be used for some required readings and homework.
None of the remaining references are required.
Fun Historical & Fiction Novels
The books listed here are not required, but provide an outstanding historical account of Canadian wildfires.
- John Vaillant, 2023: Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast. Knopf Canada. 415 pp. isbn 978-0-7352-7316-0 .
This book tells the story of the Fort McMurray fire of May 2016, interwoven with stories of the people, industry, and government affected by the fire. It is an enjoyable read about a traumatic event. The first half of the book is about the fire, and the second half is about global warming and climate change.
- Edward Struzik, 2022: Dark Days at Noon: The Future of Fire. McGill-Queen's Univ Press. 291 pp. isbn 978-0-2280-1209-2.
This is a richly illustrated book exploring the role of wildfire in Canadian history. It has wonderful stories about many different fires.
- Alan Gratz, 2022: Two Degrees. Scholastic Press. 365 pp. isbn 978-1338735673. This book, intended for young readers ages 8-12, tells the story of three kids who endure separate climate-change disasters: California wildfire, Florida hurricane, Canadian global warming. This book is designed to motivate kids to take action in spite of their climate-denying parents.
Videos
Other Reference Books and Journal Papers
- Lackmann, G. 2012: “Midlatitude Synoptic Meteorology: Dynamics, Analysis, and Forecasting”. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 345 pp. ISBN: 978-1878220103. (Also available as an eBook.) https://bookstore.ametsoc.org/catalog/book/midlatitude-synoptic-meteorology. For those of you planning to be forecasters with ECCC, this will be an important book for your bookshelf.
Student-rate cost is US$ 65. Sadly, our UBC library doesn't have an agreement with the American Meteorological Society to give students free access to this book.
- Bauer, P., Thorpe, A. & Brunet, G. The quiet revolution of numerical weather prediction. Nature 525, 47–55 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14956.
- Stuart et al, 2022: The Evolving Role of Humans in Weather Prediction and Communication. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0326.1 .
- Canadian ECCC - Manual of Surface Weather Observations 8th edition, 2019 (MANOBS). http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2019/eccc/En56-238-2-2018-eng.pdf
- COMET Modules from the Univ. Corp. for Atmos. Research: https://www.meted.ucar.edu/index.php . Over 35 free online course modules covering fire weather are available. https://www.meted.ucar.edu/education_training/
For example:
- Online lesson (2022) entitled “Air Quality Forecasting Case Study: British Columbia Smoke Event.”
https://www.meted.ucar.edu/education_training/lesson/10138
- S-190, Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior.
- S-290 Intermediate Wildland Fire Behavior Course, is the second course in a five course sequence developing wildland fire behavior prediction skills and knowledge. In the Wildland Fire Qualifications System Guide, PMS 310-1, this course is required of those planning to work as one of the Single Resource Bosses or a Fire Effects Monitor on wildfires, fire use fires, and prescribed fires. More detailed information about characteristics and interactions of the wildland fire environment (fuels, weather, and topography) that affect wildland fire behavior for safety purposes.
- Advanced Fire Weather Forecasters Course, addresses advanced training needs of Incident Meteorologists (IMETs)
- Fink, J., 2022: Recorded webinars from the “Cascadia Wildfire & Urban Smoke” series. Over 94 are available.
https://sites.google.com/pdx.edu/cascadiawildfireandurbansmoke/webinar-schedule?authuser=0 ,
or you can find them via the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQvQiqeQdTK68OFN6706xECEbxwTpYUpR
- Lynch, A.H, and J.J. Cassano, 2006: Applied Atmospheric Dynamics. J. Wiley and Sons, West Sussex, 280pp. ISBN: 978-0-470-86175-2
- Martin, J.E., 2006: Mid-Latitude Atmospheric Dynamics. Wiley. 324 pp. isbn 0-470-86465-6.(available free for UBC students via library)
- Milrad, S., 2017: Synoptic Analysis and Forecasting An Introductory Toolkit, 1st Edition. Elsevier. 246 pp. Paperback ISBN: 9780128092477 , eBook ISBN: 9780128092569. (available free for UBC students via library)
- Stuart et al (+ 18 co-authors), 2022: The evolving role of humans in weather prediction and communication. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 103, E1720–E1746. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0326.1
- World Meteorological Organization weather observing manuals.
- WMO-No.8 - Guide to Meteorological Instruments and Methods of Observation), 2014 edition, updated in 2017. http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/IMOP/CIMO-Guide.html
- Van Wanger 1987. Development and structure of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System. Canadian Forestry Service, Headquarters, Ottawa. Forestry Technical Report 35. 35 p.
- Vitolo et al 2020, = Vitolo, C., Di Giuseppe, F., Barnard, C. et al. ERA5-based global meteorological wildfire danger maps. Sci Data 7, 216 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0554-z .
- Francesca Di Giuseppe 2016, = Francesca Di Giuseppe , Florian Pappenberger , Fredrik Wetterhall , Blazej Krzeminski , Andrea Camia , Giorgio Libertá , and Jesus San Miguel, 2016: The Potential Predictability of Fire Danger Provided by Numerical Weather Prediction. J. of Applied Meteorology & Climatology, 55, 2469-2491. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-15-0297.1
- de Groot et al. 2015, = de Groot, W.J.; Wotton, B.M.; Flannigan, M.D. 2015. Wildland fire danger rating and early warning systems. Pages 207-228 in Hazards and Disasters Series: Wildfire Hazards, Risks and Disasters.(Chapter 11). Douglas Paton, volume editor. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- Fields et al. 2015, = Field, R. D., Spessa, A. C., Aziz, N. A., Camia, A., Cantin, A., Carr, R., de Groot, W. J., Dowdy, A. J., Flannigan, M. D., Manomaiphiboon, K., Pappenberger, F., Tanpipat, V., and Wang, X.: Development of a Global Fire Weather Database, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 1407–1423, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-1407-2015, 2015.
- Taylor and Alexander 2006, Science, technology, and human factors in fire danger rating: the Canadian experience. International Journal of Wildland Fire 15: 121-135.
- Francesca Di Giuseppe 2018. = Di Giuseppe, F., Rémy, S., Pappenberger, F., and Wetterhall, F.: Using the Fire Weather Index (FWI) to improve the estimation of fire emissions from fire radiative power (FRP) observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5359–5370, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5359-2018, 2018.
- O’Neill, S.M., and 39 Coauthors including Howard, R., and Stull, R.B., 2022: Profiles of Operational and Research Forecasting of Smoke and Air Quality Around the World .A Chapter in Fire, Smoke and Health. Edited by N. French, R. Pruett, T. Loboda. Wiley / American Geophysical Union. Preprint available through the Earth and Space Science Open Archive (ESSOAr): doi: 10.1002/essoar.10512975.1
- G. Rein, Smouldering Fires and Natural Fuels, Chapter 2 in: Fire Phenomena in the Earth System – An Interdisciplinary Approach to Fire Science, pp. 15–34, Belcher (editor). Wiley and Sons, 2013. ISBN 9780470657485. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118529539.ch2
- Moris et al, 2023: A global database on holdover time of lightning-ignited wildfires. Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1151–1163, 2023 https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1151-2023
Technical Reports
- BC Wildfire Service, 2023 Wildfire Season Summary.
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/wildfire-status/about-bcws/wildfire-history/wildfire-season-summary
- CIFFC, Canadian Wildland Fire Glossary, 16 Mar 2022: https://ciffc.ca/sites/default/files/2022-03/CWFM_glossary_EN.pdf
- Cruz and Plucinski 2007. Billo Road Fire: Report on Fire Behaviour Phenomena and Suppression Activities. CRC Australia. ISBN: 0 643 06536 9.
- Northwest Fire Science Consortium. What is Fuel? https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/courses/atsc413/fire_basics/images/FIREFACTS_FUELS.pdf
- Taylor, S.W. and M.E. Alexander, 2018: Field Guide to the Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction (FBP) System, 3rd Ed., NRCan. Distributed by UBC Press. ISBN 978-0-660-27486-7.
- Lawson, B.D. and O.B. Armitage, 2008: Weather Guide for the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System. NRCan. ISBN 978-1-100-11565-8. https://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/pubwarehouse/pdfs/29152.pdf
- Stull, 2015: VIPER: A model for the vertical spread of forest-fire smoke within the initial smoke plume - v6. UBC. https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/courses/atsc413/P/B/fire_heat_budget-v6s.pdf
- Forestry Canada, 1992: Development and Structure of the Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction System. Info Report ST-X-3. ISBN 0-662-19812-3. (This document has all the defining equations for the FBP system.). https://www.frames.gov/documents/catalog/forestry_canada_fire_danger_group_1992.pdf
- Wotton, B.M., M.E. Alexander, S.W. Taylor, 2009: Updates and revisions to the 1992 Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction System. Info Report GLC-X-10. NRCan. ISBN 978-1-100-11481-1 ISSN 2562-0738 (online). https://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/pubwarehouse/pdfs/31414.pdf
- Online Access to many NRCan wildfire reports: https://www.frames.gov/applied-fire-behavior/cffdrs
- National Wildfire Coord. Group: Fire Weather Cloud Chart. https://www.nwcg.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pms438.pdf
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Indigenous Fire Info
- United Nations/Vox: How Decades of Stopping Forest Fires Made them Worse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o6ezu_h6iE
- Western Montana: Homelands of the salish, Kootenai & Upper Kalispel People. Topic: Returning fire to the land. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k5-IVNUpP4
- Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes' Tribal Forestry Dept.: http://csktfire.org/
- Fire on the Land: Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and other tribes. Topic: Native People and Fire in the Northern Rockies. Interviews, galleries, stories, history. http://fwrconline.csktnrd.org/Fire/FireOnTheLand/
- Cascadia webinars on Wildfires at the forest-urban interface (Jon Fink). Playlists:
https://sites.google.com/pdx.edu/cascadiawildfireandurbansmoke/webinar-schedule?authuser=0
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQvQiqeQdTK68OFN6706xECEbxwTpYUpR
- Tree-ring evidence that Indigenous fire practices were better:
• Lori Daniels: https://youtu.be/mTeUd5k_Zls
• Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz : https://youtu.be/P0vRRi2zPI0
- Indigenous firefighting:
• Natasha Caverley: Indigenous firefighting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l9mZa9Bbuk
• Patty O'Brien: Indigenous firefighting psychological health: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFUrP9Bytcg
- BC Wildfire First Nation Bootcamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu6awAFy6mI
- Struzik, E, 2022: Dark Days at Noon: The Future of Fire. McGill-Queens Unif. Press, isbn 978-0-2280-1209-2. Has a thorough and important description of how Indigenous peoples were systematically removed from national park lands and unfairly blamed for many wildfires. Here is a taste, from his Chapter 6, pages 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79 .
- Fire Ecology and Indigenous Knowledge with Frank Lake, 28 Oct 2019 (overview & podcast) .
- Here is a list of journal papers on Indigenous forest management using fire, compiled by UBC PhD student Liam Buchart .
- Presentation by UBC PhD student Liam Buchart on Indigenous Fire Methods. Slides , video (98MB) .