Climatological evaluation of Haines forest fire weather index over the Mediterranean Basin

What is it about?

The aim of this investigation is to determine a climatic pattern of fire-meteorology over the Mediterranean basin via the frequency analysis of the forest fires weather index (FFWI) of Haines.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

High frequency values of FFWI, taken to be a sign of moderate-level risk of forest fires, were obtained on the forests, scrubs, succulents and wooded areas in several countries facing the sea including Greece, Italy, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Slovenia, France, Portugal, Spain, Morocco and Tunisia, almost all of which are characterized by dry summer, subtropical Mediterranean climates. As expected, the highest-level risk values are found in the arid desert climate regions: the desert areas of the Sahara and Libya in North Africa and the semi-arid steppe climate regions of the Middle East, as well as the semi-arid environments near the Caspian Sea basin.

Perspectives