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

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Final revised paper (published on 11 Jan 2018)
Preprint (discussion started on 11 Sep 2017)
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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review of nHESS-2017-312', Anonymous Referee #1, 28 Oct 2017
- AC1: 'Response to referee #1', Matthew Elmes, 08 Nov 2017
RC2: 'Hydrometeorological conditions preceding wildfire, and the subsequent burning of a fen watershed in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada', Anonymous Referee #2, 31 Oct 2017
AC2: 'Response to referee #2', Matthew Elmes, 08 Nov 2017

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (09 Nov 2017) by Mario Parise

AR by Matthew Elmes on behalf of the Authors (17 Nov 2017)

ED: Publish as is (22 Nov 2017) by Mario Parise

AR by Matthew Elmes on behalf of the Authors (22 Nov 2017) Manuscript

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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.