What is the ritual fire? Definition and monitoring

Sometimes, on a day but fun, the weather alert will appear on your cell phone or TV. No, not a mistake. It is likely to be a notice of fire weather – favorable conditions for igniting and firefights.

Fire weather can occur in any season, but peaks during the late summer and fall when the air is dehydration and dry fuel (fallen leaves and sleeping trees) common. Although experienced fire rituals worldwide, it pose a greater danger on locations such as the western United States, Australia, Africa and Amazon, which are subjected to fires.

Conditions that cause fire ritual

For burning, the fire needs three ingredients: Heat, oxygen and dry fuel source. The next weather conditions are conspiring to provide it, and the risk of fire is rejected because of this.

High air temperatures

The very warm temperatures increase evaporation, which in turn drink moisture from burning materials easily, including herbs, shrubs, trees, dead leaves and pine needles that act as forest fires. Also, the fuel that wipes the sun is faster, as there is a need for less thermal energy to connect it to the temperature of the ignition.

Low rainfall

The rain disturbs the surface of the fuel to the point that the fire cannot ignite. Lack of rain or snow, or in extreme cases, dehydration, does the exact opposite; The fuel dries, allowing them to combustion more easily.

Low soil moisture

Soil moisture (the amount of water contained in the soil) is a good indication of “fuel moisture”, or how full water living plants are full. When the soil moisture is low, local plants are likely to be dry and stressed in water, which also means that it is likely to burn. According to a study of soil moisture, the size of the wildfire in the southern major plains, soil moisture plays an integral role in the fire activity, so that the contributions of warm temperatures and low precipitation exceed.

Low relative humidity

When the relative moisture (a measure of the amount of water vapor in the air) is low, it helps to dry fuel, which makes it more flammable.

Wind wind

If the fire caught, the wind can increase its exacerbation in several ways. For one of them, they provide fire with more oxygen, which leads to burning it more quickly. The strong winds also reduce the moisture of the fuel by increasing evaporation, as well as encouraging fire to spread by pushing it physically and moving the embers to the front.

If you are watching the weather map, look for low humidity and strongly strong winds to move after the dry cold front (cold front linked to the dry air mass). The decisive weather is also associated with high pressure at the upper levels of the atmosphere, since these weather features can work as “heat domes”, which brings a clear sky, very dry air, and temperatures higher than average during the warmer months of the year, of course.

Fire fires and warnings

Since the fire control depends heavily on the weather, the national weather service (NOAA) works alongside the land management organizations to monitor the formed weather patterns. When many weather conditions occur simultaneously, coinciding with dry fuel, NWS will release a fire watch or a red flag warning.

Watch the fire of fire

Fire weather watch is released when the standards of red flag are met in the near future, in general during the next 24 to 72 hours.

Watch gives the audience and fire sets time to prepare for high fire risks.

Red flag standards

The standards of red flag are the values ​​of wind and humidity that indicate an increased risk of fire risk. The standards are determined by local NWS offices, and they differ from one region to another, depending on the type of local vegetation, terrain, dehydration conditions, and more. At least, include standards:

• The winds of 15 miles per hour or more (measured at a height of 20 feet above the ground).
• The minimum relative humidity (usually occurs in the afternoon) less than 25 %.
• Fuel moisture for 10 hours (a measure of the amount of water kept by grass and leaves that take 10 hours to respond to changes in moisture/drought) from 10 % or less.

Warning red flag

If a red flag is issued, this means that the standards of red flag are already fulfilled, or will be met soon, in general within the next 12 to 24 hours.

Expect any fires that are burning quickly and difficult to control or suppress them. Under the warnings of red flag, the burning ban will be valid.

How the climate change affects the weather of fire

If it seems as if you were seeing warnings of red flag today more than past years, blame climate change. Global warming increases the length of the fire season in reality, or the number of days every year when weather conditions are mature of the danger of fire. Study Nature Communications It reveals that between 1979 and 2013, the seasons of the fire of fire were 19 % on average across a quarter of the Earth’s plant regions. The enlargement of the forests of the western United States, and you will find that the seasons of the fire of fire there may be prolonged for eight days.

This same study also looked at the long fire seasons of natural. And I found that these, too, became more frequent due to climate change – 53 % more frequent, worldwide.

Research that focuses on California finds that since the 1980s, increases in the state increase in autumn temperature and decrease in rainfall by 20 % in fire ritual indicators. If modern trends persist, California may witness a 25 % increase in weather days in autumn by 2100.