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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L16708, doi:10.1029/2007GL030804, 2007

Fire season precipitation variability influences fire extent and severity in a large southwestern wilderness area, United States

Zachary A. Holden

Department of Forest Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA


Penelope Morgan

Department of Forest Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA


Michael A. Crimmins

Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA


R. K. Steinhorst

Department of Statistics, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA


Alistair M. S. Smith

Department of Forest Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA


Abstract

Despite a widely noted increase in the severity of recent western wildfires, this trend has never been quantified. A twenty-year series of Landsat TM satellite imagery for all forest fires on the 1.4 million ha Gila National Forest suggests that an increases in area burned and area burned severely from 1984–2004 are well correlated with timing and intensity of rain events during the fire season. Winter precipitation was marginally correlated with burn severity, but only in high-elevation forest types. These results suggest the importance of within-season precipitation over snow pack in modulating recent wildfire size and severity in mid-elevation southwestern forests.

Received 25 May 2007; accepted 24 July 2007; published 23 August 2007.

Keywords: burn severity; wild land fire; climate; remote sensing.

Index Terms: 0480 Biogeosciences: Remote sensing; 1637 Global Change: Regional climate change; 1632 Global Change: Land cover change.

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Citation: Holden, Z. A., P. Morgan, M. A. Crimmins, R. K. Steinhorst, and A. M. S. Smith (2007), Fire season precipitation variability influences fire extent and severity in a large southwestern wilderness area, United States, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L16708, doi:10.1029/2007GL030804.