1. Fire climate interactions on the American Pacific Coast ACRE workshop Meteoswiss, June 24 2008 Valérie Trouet A.H. Taylor, A.M. Carleton, C.N. Skinner

3. Fire

4. Fire Environment Varies in Time and Space Fuels - Vegetation Canopy Surface Ground Weather Wind Humidity Drought Landform – Terrain Slope Aspect, Elevation, Hill - Slope - Drainage Fire Environment FireEffects

5. Fire weather indices Fire growth potential, fire risk

6. Fire weather indices Fire growth potential, fire risk ERC Fuel moisture NFDRS 19 (CA) + 14 (OR) RAWS 1973-2005 fire season (July-Sep)

7. Haines Index range 2 – 6 NCEP/NCAR (2.5°) daily (0000 UTC) 1961-2000 Winkler et al. IJWF 2007

8. Haines Index climatology Winkler et al. IJWF 2007

9. Mediterranean Climate Area Oregon and northern California Trouet et al. GRL 2006

10. Interannual variability HI

11. HI, ERC vs. annual area burned AABAnnualWinterSpringSummerFall Fire season HI OR0.58*0.150.46*0.39*-0.210.54* CA0.41*0.150.36*0.35*0.030.41* Days ≥ 5 OR0.56*-0.020.36*0.48*0.010.56* CA0.39*0.050.38*0.35*0.220.42* Days ≤ 3 OR-0.6*-0.15-0.45*-0.39*0.12-0.53* CA-0.4*-0.14-0.34*-0.35*-0.06-0.4* ERC OR 0.4* CA 0.38*

12. HI, ERC vs. annual area burned Trouet et al. TAC 2008

13. Temperature HI ERC Precipitation

14. HighLow HI ERC

15. Pacific North American (PNA) pattern

16. Winter PNA – summer fire weather

17. Conclusions Severe fire weather years strong regional signal ~ widespread forest fires ~ synoptic scale circulation patterns particularly PNA

18. Fire Scar Network Fire Regimes and Climatic Variability in the Mediterranean- Climate Areas of California, Southwestern Oregon, and Western Nevada Fire Regimes and Climatic Variability in the Mediterranean- Climate Areas of California, Southwestern Oregon, and Western Nevada

19. Fire regime reconstruction 1889 LW 1879ME 1854 LE 1840 D 1828 D 1821 LE 1809 D 1799 D 1793 D 1787 LW 1781 ME 1775 D 1771 D 1765 LW

20. Fire regime reconstruction

21. Airborne Research & Survey Facility