Drivers of extreme burnt area in Portugal: fire weather and vegetation

Calheiros, Tomás; Benali, Akli; Pereira, Mário; Silva, João; Nunes, João

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-4019-2022

Articles | Volume 22, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-4019-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-4019-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 12

Research article

|

19 Dec 2022

Research article |

| 19 Dec 2022

Drivers of extreme burnt area in Portugal: fire weather and vegetation

Tomás Calheiros, Akli Benali, Mário Pereira, João Silva, and João Nunes

Data sets

ERA5: Fifth generation of ECMWF atmospheric reanalyses of the global climate Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/dataset/ecmwf-reanalysis-v5

Carta de Uso e Ocupação do Solo (COS) de Portugal Continental para 2018 Direção Geral do Território (DGT) https://dados.gov.pt/pt/datasets/carta-de-uso-e-ocupacao-do-solo-2018/

Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas (ICNF) Territórios ardidos (Área ardida entre 1975 e 2021) https://geocatalogo.icnf.pt/catalogo_tema5.html

Short summary

Fire weather indices are used to assess the effect of weather on wildfires. Fire weather risk was computed and combined with large wildfires in Portugal. Results revealed the influence of vegetation cover: municipalities with a prevalence of shrublands, located in eastern parts, burnt under less extreme conditions than those with higher forested areas, situated in coastal regions. These findings are a novelty for fire science in Portugal and should be considered for fire management.