Synoptic weather patterns conducive to lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia

Wildfires cause substantial losses to socio-economic and natural assets, especially in Mediterranean climate regions. Despite human activity being the main cause of wildfires in Mediterranean European countries, lightning-ignited wildfires should also be considered a major disruptive agent as they c...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Pineda, Nicolau, Peña, Juan Carlos, Soler, Xavier, Aran, Montse, Pérez Zanón, Núria
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/368374
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/368374
https://dx.doi.org/10.5194/asr-19-39-2022
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Wildfires
Catalonia (Spain)
Extreme weather
Lightning-ignited wildfires
Mediterranean
Synoptic weather patterns
Simulació per ordinador
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria agroalimentària::Ciències de la terra i de la vida::Climatologia i meteorologia
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network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling Synoptic weather patterns conducive to lightning-ignited wildfires in CataloniaPineda, NicolauPeña, Juan CarlosSoler, XavierAran, MontsePérez Zanón, NúriaWildfiresCatalonia (Spain)Extreme weatherLightning-ignited wildfiresMediterraneanSynoptic weather patternsSimulació per ordinadorÀrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria agroalimentària::Ciències de la terra i de la vida::Climatologia i meteorologiaWildfires cause substantial losses to socio-economic and natural assets, especially in Mediterranean climate regions. Despite human activity being the main cause of wildfires in Mediterranean European countries, lightning-ignited wildfires should also be considered a major disruptive agent as they can trigger large fires. In addition, recent studies on the potential climate change effects on wildfires pointed out that lightning-ignited wildfires may gain relevance in Mediterranean areas in the years to come. The present study analyses the synoptical weather patterns favouring lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula). Being able to identify areas with an elevated lightning-ignition survival at daily timescales would be of great assistance to wildfire management agencies, i.e. locating ignitions and potential holdover fires, preparing for days with multiple ignitions or routing detection flight paths. It is worth noticing that one of the reasons that lightning-caused wildfires are difficult to manage is that they can survive for several days after the ignition, emerging days later once surface vegetation becomes dry enough to support sustained combustion. For this reason, in a first step, a reliable lightning–wildfire association is needed to properly identify the date and time of the fire starter for each wildfire. Afterwards, the circulation types on the days of ignition are analysed. The study relies on a dataset of 870 lightning-ignited wildfires, gathered by the Forest Protection Agency of the autonomous government of Catalonia between 2005 and 2020. Lightning data were provided by the Lightning Location System operated by the Meteorological Service of Catalonia. Results show that lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia are related to a typical synoptic weather pattern dominated by a short-wave trough at 500 hPa, with three distinct associations: an Iberian thermal low (51 % of the fires), a northern flow (24 %) and prefrontal convection (13 %).Peer ReviewedCopernicus Publications20222022-06-0120222022-06-13journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2117/368374https://dx.doi.org/10.5194/asr-19-39-2022reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPCinstname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)Inglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/3683742026-05-27T15:37:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Synoptic weather patterns conducive to lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia
title Synoptic weather patterns conducive to lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia
spellingShingle Synoptic weather patterns conducive to lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia
Pineda, Nicolau
Wildfires
Catalonia (Spain)
Extreme weather
Lightning-ignited wildfires
Mediterranean
Synoptic weather patterns
Simulació per ordinador
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria agroalimentària::Ciències de la terra i de la vida::Climatologia i meteorologia
title_short Synoptic weather patterns conducive to lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia
title_full Synoptic weather patterns conducive to lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia
title_fullStr Synoptic weather patterns conducive to lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia
title_full_unstemmed Synoptic weather patterns conducive to lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia
title_sort Synoptic weather patterns conducive to lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Pineda, Nicolau
Peña, Juan Carlos
Soler, Xavier
Aran, Montse
Pérez Zanón, Núria
author Pineda, Nicolau
author_facet Pineda, Nicolau
Peña, Juan Carlos
Soler, Xavier
Aran, Montse
Pérez Zanón, Núria
author_role author
author2 Peña, Juan Carlos
Soler, Xavier
Aran, Montse
Pérez Zanón, Núria
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Wildfires
Catalonia (Spain)
Extreme weather
Lightning-ignited wildfires
Mediterranean
Synoptic weather patterns
Simulació per ordinador
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria agroalimentària::Ciències de la terra i de la vida::Climatologia i meteorologia
topic Wildfires
Catalonia (Spain)
Extreme weather
Lightning-ignited wildfires
Mediterranean
Synoptic weather patterns
Simulació per ordinador
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria agroalimentària::Ciències de la terra i de la vida::Climatologia i meteorologia
description Wildfires cause substantial losses to socio-economic and natural assets, especially in Mediterranean climate regions. Despite human activity being the main cause of wildfires in Mediterranean European countries, lightning-ignited wildfires should also be considered a major disruptive agent as they can trigger large fires. In addition, recent studies on the potential climate change effects on wildfires pointed out that lightning-ignited wildfires may gain relevance in Mediterranean areas in the years to come. The present study analyses the synoptical weather patterns favouring lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula). Being able to identify areas with an elevated lightning-ignition survival at daily timescales would be of great assistance to wildfire management agencies, i.e. locating ignitions and potential holdover fires, preparing for days with multiple ignitions or routing detection flight paths. It is worth noticing that one of the reasons that lightning-caused wildfires are difficult to manage is that they can survive for several days after the ignition, emerging days later once surface vegetation becomes dry enough to support sustained combustion. For this reason, in a first step, a reliable lightning–wildfire association is needed to properly identify the date and time of the fire starter for each wildfire. Afterwards, the circulation types on the days of ignition are analysed. The study relies on a dataset of 870 lightning-ignited wildfires, gathered by the Forest Protection Agency of the autonomous government of Catalonia between 2005 and 2020. Lightning data were provided by the Lightning Location System operated by the Meteorological Service of Catalonia. Results show that lightning-ignited wildfires in Catalonia are related to a typical synoptic weather pattern dominated by a short-wave trough at 500 hPa, with three distinct associations: an Iberian thermal low (51 % of the fires), a northern flow (24 %) and prefrontal convection (13 %).
publishDate 2022
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2022
2022-06-01
2022
2022-06-13
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2117/368374
https://dx.doi.org/10.5194/asr-19-39-2022
url https://hdl.handle.net/2117/368374
https://dx.doi.org/10.5194/asr-19-39-2022
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Copernicus Publications
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Copernicus Publications
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
instname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
instname_str Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
reponame_str UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
collection UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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score 15,198674

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