Characteristics of seven lightning discharges that caused forest fires

Fuquay, D. M.; Baughman, Robert G.; Taylor, Alan R.; Hawe, R. G.

doi:10.1029/jz072i024p06371

Cited by 62 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Complementary to the postfire investigations, the analysis of remotely sensed data presented here demonstrates a high risk of fire ignition from lightning in that region, including due to the high concentration of lightning activity produced by the Kinglake pyroCb in the region where this new fire occurred (Figure ). Another important factor in determining whether or not a sustained fire will develop following a lightning ignition is the amount of precipitation that accompanies the lightning activity, with lightning accompanied by relatively little precipitation known as dry lightning [ Fuquay et al , ; Latham , ; Rorig and Ferguson , ]. The risk of fire occurrence from a lightning ignition in this region of southeast Australia is higher than average if less than about 3 mm of precipitation occurs and lower than average if more than about 5 mm of precipitation occurs [ Dowdy and Mills , , ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pyrocumulonimbus lightning and fire ignition on Black Saturday in southeast Australia

2017

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A number of devastating wildfires occurred in southeast Australia on 7 February 2009, colloquially known as Black Saturday. Atmospheric responses to this extreme fire event are investigated here with a focus on convective processes associated with fire activity (i.e., pyroconvection). We examine six different fire complexes on Black Saturday, finding three clearly distinct pyrocumulonimbus storms, the largest of which reached heights of 15 km on that day and generated hundreds of lightning strokes. The first lightning stroke was recorded near the largest fire complex 5 h after fire ignition. One of the pyrocumulonimbus storms was initiated close to midnight due to mesoscale influences, consistent with extreme fire behavior observed at that time for that particular fire. As another example of fire‐atmosphere interactions, a fire that started late on Black Saturday is examined in relation to ignition caused by pyrogenic lightning, with implications for understanding the maximum rate of spread of a wildfire. Results are discussed in relation to another pyrocumulonimbus event associated with the 2003 Canberra fires. Our findings are intended to provide a greater understanding of pyroconvection and fire‐atmosphere feedback processes, as well as help enhance wildfire response capabilities. We also demonstrate the potential for using lightning, radar, and satellite remote sensing in combination with thermodynamic analyses as well as synoptic and mesoscale dynamics to provide enhanced real‐time guidance for dangerous fire conditions associated with pyroconvection, as well as for the risk of new fire ignitions from pyrogenic lightning.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pyrocumulonimbus lightning and fire ignition on Black Saturday in southeast Australia

2017

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“…The solid dashed line represents the region of convergence along the Olt River, where convection is often initiated. than negative flashes (e.g., Nakahori et al 1982;Idone et al 1984) and are also more likely to start forest fires (e.g., Fuquay et al 1967;Rakov and Uman 2003). Fig.…”

Section: Positive Cloud-to-ground Lightning Densitymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Climatology for Romania

Antonescu

Burcea

2010

Monthly Weather Review

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The first study of the characteristics of cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning in Romania, based on the data recorded by the Romanian National Lightning Detection Network (RNLDN), is presented. The data, more than 1. The monthly variation of the median first-strike peak currents has a maximum in winter and reaches a minimum in July, for both negative and positive currents. The mean diurnal cycle for total CG lightning flashes peaks between 1230 and 1430 UTC (2.2%) and shows a minimum between 0600 and 0800 UTC (0.3%).

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“…The efficiency of individual lightning strikes in igniting a forest fire is mainly affected by the variety in lightning properties such as the quantity, polarity and intensity [5]. Research has shown that the long-continuing current intensity of a lightning discharge is responsible for most, if not all, lightning-caused fires [8][9][10]. The advent of lightning location systems has advanced lightning-caused fire prediction [11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Forest Lightning Fire Occurrence in the Daxinganling Mountains of Northeastern China with MAXENT

Chen

Niu

et al. 2015

Forests

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Forest lightning fire is a recurrent and serious problem in the Daxinganling Mountains of northeastern China. Information on the spatial distribution of fire danger is needed to improve local fire prevention actions. The Maxent (Maximun Entropy Models), which is prevalent in modeling habitat distribution, was used to predict the possibility of lightning fire occurrence in a 1 × 1 km grid based on history fire data and environment variables in Daxinganling Mountains during the period 2005-2010.We used a jack-knife test to assess the independent contributions of lightning characteristics, meteorological factors, topography and vegetation to the goodness-of-fit of models and evaluated the prediction accuracy with the kappa statistic and AUC (receiver operating characteristic curve) analysis. The results showed that rainfall, number of strikes and lightning current intensity were major factors, and vegetation and geographic variable were secondary, in affecting lightning fire occurrence. The predicted model performs well in terms of accuracy, with an average AUC and maximum kappa value of 0.866 and 0.782, respectively, for the validation sample. The prediction accuracy also increased with the sample size. Our study demonstrated that the Maxent model can be used to predict lightning fire occurrence in the Daxinganling Mountains. This model can provide guidance to forest managers in spatial assessment of daily fire danger. OPEN ACCESSForests 2015, 6 1423

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Characteristics of seven lightning discharges that caused forest fires

Cited by 62 publications

References 3 publications

Pyrocumulonimbus lightning and fire ignition on Black Saturday in southeast Australia

Pyrocumulonimbus lightning and fire ignition on Black Saturday in southeast Australia

A Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Climatology for Romania

Modeling Forest Lightning Fire Occurrence in the Daxinganling Mountains of Northeastern China with MAXENT

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