A Climatology Study of Wildfire Activity in the United States with ERA5 Reanalysis Data

Wildfires are large, uncontrollable fires that spread very quickly over woodland, brush, or grassland. Wildfires in the United States have increased in frequency and damage in the recent years and tend to occur all year around comparing to that mainly in the summer months before. This study uses the fire data of daily burning index and spread component from the fifth generation ECMWF atmospheric reanalysis data (ERA5) to study the climatology of wildfire activity in the United State for the 43-year period from 1979 to 2021. The burning index is a measure of fire intensity, which combines the spread component and the energy release component, and the spread component is a rating of the forward rate of spread of a head fire. It considers the effect of wind, slope, and fuel. The monthly climatology of burning index and spread component shows that for the long-term average there are higher events centered over the southwestern United States, especially during the summer months. In recent years there was an even deeper spread over the southwestern United States. Additionally, the Burning Index has consistently higher coverage than the Spread Component. Through this study we can gain better understanding of climatological distribution and temporal variation of the wildfire activity in the United State. This helps lay out foundation for further research to identify and analyze the climate indices that closely relate to the pre-conditions that sustain and aid in the growth and spread of wildfires.

Acknowledgement:

This study was sponsored by the NOAA Educational Partnership Program (EPP) with Minority

Serving institutions (MSI) Undergraduate Scholarship program. Computational resources were

provided by the University Corporation for Academic Research (UCAR).

This study was sponsored by the Research Initiative for Scientific Advancement Program (RISE)