- Title:
-
A Comparison of the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index and the Canadian Fire Weather Index
- Date:
- September 2008
- Organisations
- BCRC
- Authors:
- A. J. Dowdy, K. Finkele, G.A. Mills, B. DeGroot.
- Location:
- Australia, Australia
Overview
The International Bushfire Research Conference 2008 - incorporating The 15th annual AFAC Conference, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
The performances of the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index and the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index are examined for Australian conditions using eight years of gridded data. The McArthur and Canadian systems both show large spatial and temporal variations throughout Australia.
Some parts of Australia have relatively low index values even though significant fire activity is occurring. This suggests that index percentiles could be a valuable forecasting tool, since percentiles can indicate how common an index value is for a specific location or time of year. The potential benefits of using index percentiles are examined using a number of historical fire case studies.
The case studies show considerable differences between the performances of the MacArthur and Canadian index values and percentiles. The MacArthur and Canadian Systems are examined using a number of novel diagnostic tools. Steady-state index values are used to investigate index derivatives with respect to input conditions, showing significant differences between the two systems.
Although the relationship between the two indices is somewhat nonlinear, the relationship between their percentiles shows relatively little variation throughout Australia. The similarity of their percentiles can be used to calibrate the Canadian system to Australian conditions.
