Hydrometeorological conditions preceding wildfire, and the subsequent burning of a fen watershed in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

Elmes, Matthew C.; Thompson, Dan K.; Sherwood, James H.; Price, Jonathan S.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-157-2018

Articles | Volume 18, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-157-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-157-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 1

Research article

|

11 Jan 2018

Research article |

| 11 Jan 2018

Hydrometeorological conditions preceding wildfire, and the subsequent burning of a fen watershed in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

Matthew C. Elmes, Dan K. Thompson, James H. Sherwood, and Jonathan S. Price

Data sets

Elmes et al. (NHESS) Data M. Elmes, D. Thompson, J. Sherwood, and J. Price https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5346484

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Short summary

The infrequent coinciding of several hydrometeorological conditions common to the Western Boreal Plain, including low autumn soil moisture, modest snowpack, lack of spring precipitation, and high spring air temperatures and winds, ultimately led to the widespread Horse river fire in May of 2016. Monitoring antecedent soil moisture would aid management strategies in producing of more accurate overwintered Drought Code calculations, providing early warning signals ahead of spring wildfire seasons.