NEARLY HALF OF ALL FOREST FIRES IN THE US ARE ATTRIBUTED TO LIGHTNING. HOWEVER THE OCCURRENCE OF LIGHTNING BY ITSELF CORRELATES POORLY TO LIGHTNING CAUSED WILDFIRES: WHAT IS NECESSARY IS DRY LIGHTNING WHICH IS DEFINED BY THE OCCURRENCE OF A LIGHTNING FLASH PRECEDED BY A PRECIPITATION.FREE PERIOD. THE LENGTH OF THIS PERIOD AND THE PRECIPITATION THRESHOLD USED TO DEFINE DRY DEPENDS ON THE STATE OF THE FUEL TO BE IGNITED AND PERHAPS THE INTENSITY OF THE FLASH. PREVIOUS WORK HAS USED BLENDED RADAR.GAUGE PRECIPITATION DATA TO DETERMINE THESE PARAMETERS ON REGIONAL AND ANNUAL SCALES IN WHICH COARSE RESOLUTION IN SPACE AND TIME PROVIDED LARGE ENOUGH NUMBERS IN EACH BIN FOR STABLE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. THE GOAL FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS WORK IS TO USE FINE ENOUGH RESOLUTION IN TIME AND SPACE TO TARGET THE STATE OF INDIVIDUAL STANDS OF VEGETATION. THE FIRE DATASET PROVIDES IGNITION LOCATIONS AT THE RESOLUTION OF A DAY: OUR FIRST TASK IS TO REFINE THE IGNITION TIME TO WITHIN AN HOUR USING THE DRY LIGHTNING DEFINITION. THE SECOND TASK IS TABULATING DRY LIGHTNING PARAMETERS FOR EACH LIGHTNING EVENT MATING TO THE OCCURRENCE OF WILDFIRE. THIS WILL PROVIDE CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA FOR FUTURE STUDY OF FUEL STATE VERSUS IGNITION A TOPIC BEYOND THE SCOPE OF THIS WORK. THE GEOGRAPHICAL BIN SIZES WILL BE ADJUSTED TO PROVIDE ENOUGH OCCURRENCES IN EACH BIN FOR STATISTICAL ANALYSIS.

Research Foundation Of The City University Of New York, New York NY

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