P1. 2 FIRE GROWTH SIMULATIONS OF THE PRICE CANYON, THIRTYMILE AND STORM KING MOUNTAIN FIRES USING HIGH RESOLUTION WIND SIMULATION TOOLS AND FARSITE

摘要: Wind is one of the primary environmental variables influencing wildland fire spread and intensity (Rothermel 1972, Catchpole and others 1998). Nevertheless, methods to model local wind speed and direction are not readily available. In many cases, wind information available to fire incident personnel is limited to that available from weather forecasts and/or weather observations from a few specific locations, none of which may be actually near the fire. Mountainsides, valleys, ridges, and the fire itself, influence both the speed and direction of wind flows. A major source of uncertainty in fire behavior predictions is the lack of detailed wind speed and direction information for use in the fire behavior calculations. Wind and its spatial variability in mountainous terrain was a major factor in the fire behavior associated with recent fire incidents that resulted in firefighter entrapments and/or fatalities: South Canyon Fire 1994 (Butler and others 1998), Thirtymile fire (USDA Forest Service 2001), and Price Canyon Fire (Thomas and Vergari 2002). Fire behavior forecasts, fire growth projections and firefighter safety could greatly benefit from detailed local wind information.