Fire growth simulations of the Price Canyon, Thirtymile and Storm King Mountain fires using high resolution wind simulation tools and FARSITE

A widely used fluid dynamics simulation tool has been used to simulate local wind speed and direction in mountainous terrain. The simulations are conducted at the 100-200m scale. The high resolution wind data were used as input in the FARSITE fire area simulator to simulate the growth of three fires (i.e. the Price Canyon, Thirtymile and Storm King Mountain Fires). These fires were chosen primarily because a relatively large amount of information about their growth is available. Price Canyon and Storm King Mountain fire growth was associated with strong wind events, the Thirtymile fire was not associated with a strong general wind flow, but growth may have been related to interactions between the terrain and fire-induced wind fields. Results from the simulations of the Price Canyon and Storm King Mountain fires indicate that the high resolution wind information can improve the accuracy of fire growth predictions in both time and space; results from the Thirtymile fire simulation illustrate the highly turbulent flow field that can develop when large fires are burning in and along steep valleys.