A High-Resolution Historical Fire Climate Data Set For Victoria

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TitleA High-Resolution Historical Fire Climate Data Set For Victoria
Publication TypeConference Proceedings
Year of Conference2008
AuthorsBrown, T, Mills, GA, Ghidey, T, Reinbold, H
Conference NameAFAC 2008 Conference
Conference LocationUSA, United States of America
URLhttp://knowledgeweb.afac.com.au/research/fire_behaviour/weather/a_high-resolution_historical_fire_climate_data_set_for_victoria
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The International Bushfire Research Conference 2008 - incorporating The 15th annual AFAC Conference, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

This presentation describes the development of a high-resolution gridded fore climatology database for Victoria - a joint project between the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment , the Desert Research Institute program for climate, ecosystems and fire application in the U.S, the Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre and the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre.

The MM5 mesoscale meteorology model was used to create 35-years (1972-2006) of daily fire weather and fire danger over a 4-km grid. Weather elements include daily temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, rainfall, evaporation and solar radiation. These data are used to compute the forest fire danger index (FFDI) and Canadian seasonal severity ratings (SSR). A Climatological database for all of the weather and fire danger elements was generated for each 4-km grid cell. Climatological statistics were computed for season length, drought and fire danger classes, and data were analysed to determine fire climate zones.

Results of the project will be discussed along with the value of high-resolution datasets for fire regime management.