The interaction between a wildfire and a sea-breeze front

The effect of weather on fire behavior is one of the most important and most difficult factors to understand and predict. Rapid changes in wind speed and direction can quickly affect the rate and direction of fire spread as well as fire intensity. Changes in humidity may also cause unexpected changes in fire behavior. Florida experiences sea breezes, lake breezes, and bay breezes almost every day during the year and also sees a combination of many of these breezes, and as such most wildfires in Florida experience some effect from these breezes. Nevertheless, the nature of the interaction between wildfires and sea breezes is relatively poorly understood.

The goal of this study is to provide an improved understanding of the interactions between wildfires and the sea breeze, based both on observations of a fire event and on idealized numerical simulations that describe interactions between a buoyant plume and a density current. Radar observations of a plume associated with a wildfire will be shown that indicate the possibility that the arrival of a sea-breeze front results in a temporary, but significant, increase in fire intensity. There is insufficient evidence to fully explain this intensification; however, the idealized numerical simulations suggest that during the period of interaction preceding the arrival of the density current, slight pressure perturbations may trigger an intensification of the horizontal and vertical velocities within the plume.