Identification

Title

The High Park fire: Coupled weather-wildland fire model simulation of a windstorm-driven wildfire in Colorado's Front Range

Abstract

Weather affects wildland fires at scales from multiseasonal precipitation patterns and anomalies, through synoptic and mesoscale weather patterns, to convective scale motions including fire-induced winds. This work analyzed the first day's growth of the 2012 High Park fire, which occurred in Colorado's Front Range during widespread drought and an unseasonal June windstorm, assessing to what extent the Coupled Atmosphere-Wildland Fire Environment coupled numerical weather prediction--wildland fire behavior model could reproduce the event, burn severity patterns, and how the drought impact on fuel moisture impacted the event. Simulated mountaintop wind speeds reaching 47 m s⁻¹ and gravity wave overturning created strong, gusty surface winds. During the first 9 h, the simulated fire grew underneath the gravity wave's crest and downdraft, sheltered from the windstorm. The simulated fire then climbed a ridge, was exposed to the windstorm, and rapidly traveled east, covering 15 km in 12.3 h. Burning routed up or down drainages caused finger-like streaks in maximum fire intensity. Reference fire mapping information supported the simulated early growth toward the north, splitting around topographic features, while the simulation's underestimate of extent accrued to 2 km over 21.3 h. While the control simulation employed horizontal grid spacing of 123 m, a simulation refined to 370 m captured some wave motions and overall direction but further underestimated extent and lacked details such as turns in direction, splitting, or fingering at the leading edge. Compared to a simulation with moderately dry fuel conditions, a range of drought-like fuel moisture conditions produced fires that extended 0-39% farther.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7cn752q

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2015-01-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact