Forest fires burn as much at night, contrary to belief, says study

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A forest fire west of Kelowna, British Columbia

La Presse Canadian

A new study from British Columbia hypothesizes that drought is the primary fuel for nighttime wildfires and that very dry fuels promote extreme fire behavior and growth at night.

This finding marks a shift from the belief that darkness generally means calmer fire conditions.

Global warming erodes the climatological barrier that generally limits nighttime fires.

Mike Flannigan, a co-author of the study, points out that discovering the role of drought led researchers to demonstrate that daytime conditions can be used to predict how a fire will burn at night, information that could be crucial to firefighting efforts.

In his opinion, any information on nighttime fire activity is really essential, especially when a fire approaches a city.

LoadingBudget: the PLQ sounds the alarm after warnings from the Moody's and DBRS agencies

Budget: the PLQ sounds the alarm after warnings from the Moody's and DBRS agencies

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The study recalls that climate models predict that summers will become warmer and drier, conditions that Mike Flannigan describes as a powder keg for wildfires.

Researchers used wildfire records and satellite data to examine more than 23,500 fires in North America from 2017 to 2020. Researchers cataloged 1,095 nighttime fires associated with 340 wildfires and found that the vast majority spanned at least 10 square kilometers.

The determining factors were drought and the availability of forest fuels, such as grasses, dead leaves, twigs and branches. Research also shows that nighttime fires often occurred within two days of ignition.

Mike Flannigan says he #x27;this is important data, because it makes it possible to mobilize the use of firefighting resources in order to contain the flames before they spread.

Researchers also developed models to determine whether nighttime fires could be predicted and found that daytime conditions set the stage for what happened at night. /p>

There is currently no specific policy or protocol for nighttime burning. There are many factors to consider when it comes to night work, including levels of supervision and availability of shifts.