20192020 Australia Fire and Its Relationship to Hydroclimatological and Vegetation Variabilities Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Wildfire is a major concern worldwide and particularly in Australia. The 20192020 wildfires in Australia became historically significant as they were widespread and extremely severe. Linking climate and vegetation settings to wildfires can provide insightful information for wildfire prediction, and help better understand wildfires behavior in the future. The goal of this research was to examine the relationship between the recent wildfires, various hydroclimatological variables, and satellite-retrieved vegetation indices. The analyses performed here show the uniqueness of the 20192020 wildfires. The near-surface air temperature from December 2019 to February 2020 was about 1 C higher than the 20-year mean, which increased the evaporative demand. The lack of precipitation before the wildfires, due to an enhanced high-pressure system over southeast Australia, prevented the soil from having enough moisture to supply the demand, and set the stage for a large amount of dry fuel that highly favored the spread of the fires.

published proceedings

  • Water

altmetric score

  • 1.85

author list (cited authors)

  • Ehsani, M. R., Arevalo, J., Risanto, C. B., Javadian, M., Devine, C. J., Arabzadeh, A., ... Behrangi, A.

citation count

  • 28

complete list of authors

  • Ehsani, Mohammad Reza||Arevalo, Jorge||Risanto, Christoforus Bayu||Javadian, Mostafa||Devine, Charles John||Arabzadeh, Alireza||Venegas-Quiñones, Hector L||Dell’Oro, Ambria Paige||Behrangi, Ali

publication date

  • November 2020

publisher