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Fire Effects and Fire Ecology

Displaying 1 - 10 of 338

Projections of Lightning-Ignited Wildfire Risk in the Western United States

Year of Publication
2025
Publication Type

Cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning is a major source of summer wildfire ignition in the western United States (WUS). However, future projections of lightning are uncertain since lightning is not directly simulated by most global climate models. To address this issue, we use convolutional neural network (CNN)-based parameterizations of daily June-September CG lightning.

Intensifying Fire Season Aridity Portends Ongoing Expansion of Severe Wildfire in Western US Forests

Year of Publication
2025
Publication Type

Area burned by wildfire has increased in western US forests and elsewhere over recent decades coincident with warmer and drier fire seasons. However, high–severity fire—fire that kills all or most trees—is arguably a more important metric of fire activity given its destabilizing influence on forest ecosystems and direct and indirect impacts to human communities.