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Fire season precipitation variability influences fire extent and severity in a large southwestern wilderness area, United States
Author(s) -
Holden Zachary A.,
Morgan Penelope,
Crimmins Michael A.,
Steinhorst R. K.,
Smith Alistair M. S.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2007gl030804
Subject(s) - precipitation , wilderness area , elevation (ballistics) , environmental science , snow , physical geography , fire regime , climatology , wilderness , geography , geology , ecosystem , meteorology , ecology , biology , geometry , mathematics
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.

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