Climatological evaluation of H aines forest fire weather index over the M editerranean B asin

Forest fires are the most crucial natural threat to forests and wooded areas. They destroy many more trees than all other natural catastrophes such as parasite attacks, insects, extreme weather events and others. Forest fires, especially in summer and dry autumn/spring periods, are frequent in the M editerranean basin and represent growing environmental and ecological problems. The aim of this investigation is to determine a climatic pattern of fire‐meteorology over the M editerranean basin via the frequency analysis of the forest fires weather index ( FFWI ) of H aines. The FFWI values were obtained by using the hourly data derived from reanalysis fields available from the N ational C enters for E nvironmental P rediction/ N ational C enter for A tmospheric R esearch ( NCEP / NCAR ) for the period 1980–2010. High frequency values of FFWI , taken to be a sign of moderate‐level risk of forest fires, were obtained on the forests, scrubs, succulents and wooded areas in several countries facing the sea including G reece, I taly, T urkey, S yria, L ebanon, C yprus, M acedonia, A lbania, S erbia, S lovenia, F rance, P ortugal, S pain, M orocco and T unisia, almost all of which are characterized by dry summer, subtropical M editerranean climates. As expected, the highest‐level risk values are found in the arid desert climate regions: the desert areas of the S ahara and L ibya in N orth A frica and the semi‐arid steppe climate regions of the M iddle E ast, as well as the semi‐arid environments near the C aspian S ea basin. Copyright © 2013 Royal Meteorological Society