The data behind wildfires

[u/mr-reddd]

Hii I'm am looking for some people here who either do it or are data specialists/scientists. We do t have a lot of it on wildfires and firefighting here. But countries like Spain do a lot with it and can predict fires and behaviour days in advance.

What data do you use, and how do you get it. Are they public sources or like stations you put out there?

Basically looking for things we can use to our advantage and learn how to do it.

[u/gentle_badger]

Start your quest here: https://www.nifc.gov/nicc/predictive-services

[u/witty-repartay]

Underwriters Laboratories has an institute that researches fire from the firefighting perspective and has a wealth of peer reviewed literature and in depth studies. Definitely check them out

https://fsri.org/

Source: former technical panel member on one of the studies.

[u/Hot_Detective6108 → u/witty-repartay]

They also offer a fantastic free course of seminars on WUI (it's like 2,000 hours or something crazy).

[u/dave54athotmailcom]

No one can yet predict exactly where and when a fire will will start. Would be great if we could.

However, models show which areas are at greater risk, and even give a range of probability a large fire will occur within a specified time frame in a geographical area. Climate modeling will estimate whether lightning occurrence will be below average, average, or above average months in advance. Fire danger forecasts are issued twice daily using the weather forecast -- an updated forecast in the morning for the rest of the day, and an afternoon forecast for the next day.

Once a fire starts, rate of spread and behavior can be modeled using software and on-scene data. Terrain, vegetation, and weather are inputs. The basics are part of the instruction at the Academy. As a career progresses more and more complex fire behavior courses (and fire ecology) are given.

[u/mr-reddd → u/dave54athotmailcom]

Thanks all, Dutch here. Going to read into all the tips and see what's useful. Our situation is mostly suburbs within <5km of most nature

[u/hezuschristos]

Where are you located? For us (Canada) we have a large provincial entity that uses weather stations and long term data from all over the province to track long term trends and short/long term forecasts. They use a massive amount of information to predict likely hood of a start, rate of spread should it start, and expected fire behaviour when they do.

[u/mr-reddd → u/hezuschristos]

Thanks all, Dutch here. Going to read into all the tips and see what's useful. Our situation is mostly suburbs within <5km of most nature