It seems that hardly a week goes by without another major wildfire raging through parts of the American West. Ongoing droughts, changes in land-use, rising temperatures and a whole range of influences are combining to make the situation increasingly worse.

But a new study looking at historical data has fire management professionals rethinking the value of wild fires and their impact on the local environment.

A recently published paper by a 12-strong team of researchers from the University of Oregon concludes that human presence has helped change the fire regime in the western US. Early settlers suppressed wildfires and altered the landscape through the introduction of grazing and other intensive land use changes. Read More...

Tags: wildfire management, fire weather monitoring, University of Oregon, American West

With so much media coverage about the record-breaking severity of natural disasters that occurred in 2011, it’s little wonder that many people are keeping a wary eye on the outlook for the year ahead.

Unseasonably dry and warm conditions in many areas have already caused serious concerns for those living and working in wildfire prone regions. Homes, commercial properties, endangered habitats and even human lives are at risk from uncontrolled blazes and government agencies, academic institutions and private businesses are all leading the way in developing sophisticated ways to predict and manage wildland fires.

To help further protect civilians and professionals alike, a new mapping and weather platform has been developed by Californian start-up FireWhat.

Combining data from Google Maps, a NASA satellite and local weather information, this service illustrates the locations and conditions of current neighborhood fires. Read More...

Tags: QD3, FireWhat, iPhone, Apps, Portable RAWS, fire weather monitoring, wildfire

When it comes to finding ways of helping prevent bushfires it sometimes helps to think outside of the box.

But as far as ideas go, the latest one being proposed as a means to reduce increasing fires in Australia’s Northern Territory may seem stranger than most.

David Bowman, an environmental scientist at the University of Tasmania, suggests in a recent article in the journal Nature that the problem could be tempered by the introduction of large, grazing mammals. And by large, he is referring to elephants and rhinoceroses.

On the face of it, Bowman’s recommendations may seem rather peculiar, but there is a sound logic to his pachydermic proposition. Read More...

Tags: Australia, wildfire, elephants

As the FTS success story continues to gain momentum, the media maintain interest in our ongoing developments and products. Here, CEO David Illing proudly poses alongside one of our QD3 Quick Deploy portable RAWS for a photographer from Douglas magazine while FTS Marketing Director Eric Embacher assists with the shoot. The business-focused publication will be carrying a feature spread on FTS in their March 2012 issue. Read More...

Tags: QD3, Douglas magazine, business, media, Portable RAWS

Here’s a training video used by NIFC covering fire weather forecasting. In it, Rick Ochoa explains how to interpret fire weather forecasts, developed using data from the US fire weather network, and which are used by fire crews in planning prescribed burns and fighting wildfires. Read More...

Tags: NIFC, RAWS, wildfire prediction, Video

Yet more worrying news for Canada’s beleaguered forests was published earlier this week, when the findings of a study into tree growth rates in boreal areas cast some serious cause for concern.

Researchers looking into the effects of drought in northern forest regions of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have discovered that the increasing lack of precipitation in recent decades appears to be having a significant and profound effect.

A team of biologists from the University of Montreal, led by Dr. Changhui Peng, studied tree mortality and found significant increases of almost 5% per year over a 45-year period. Forests in western Canada were suffering significantly more than those in the East. Read More...

Tags: Canada, boreal forests, forest management, fire weather monitoring

Even if it has been warmer than usual in much of North America, Alaska is seeing a real winter, even by it’s standards.

The Alaskan fire RAWS (Remote Automated Weather Station) network, which comprises about 133 FTS fixed RAWS, regularly sustains extremely cold temperatures and extremely large temperature swings. This past January was no exception, with the Noatak station recording 8 days having an average temperature of minus 50°F (-45.6°C) or lower, and a temperature swing of 48 degrees Fahrenheit within a span of 6 days. Despite the extreme temperatures, data for wind speed and direction, air temperature and humidity and solar radiation was measured and transmitted over GOES, with not one missed transmission for the entire month. The data can be viewed on the WRCC website. Read More...

Tags: RAWS, Alaska, Extreme environments, Temperature, Cold, GOES, Remote

We came across a segment shown on CTV News (formerly, /A\ News), coincidentally the major news channel for Victoria, BC where FTS is located. In it, Dan Morrison, the chief fire meteorologist for Vancouver Island discusses the importance of accurate weather conditions from a network of fixed RAWS (Remote Automated Weather Station) for forecasting not only the danger of wildfires starting, but also the behavior of wildfires that do start. Because wildfires can have their own weather systems, it’s especially important for firefighting crews to have current and accurate weather conditions right where the fire is. This is why a portable RAWS like the FTS QD3 QuickDeploy is one of the most crucial tools that a wildfire crew can possess. Read More...

Tags: Vancouver island, Canada, fire weather stations, RAWS, Portable RAWS

Researchers in Spain have identified the probable cause in an increase and severity of forest fires occurring in the country.

And for once it seems that fingers aren’t pointing solely at the effects of climate change, but at shifts in socioeconomics.

Over the last forty years Spain has seen a significant exodus from rural communities with many people relocating to the larger cities, and the tourist boomtowns on the Mediterranean coast. Consequent changes in land use, previously managed for agricultural purposes, created an incendiary landscape invaded by fast growing and flammable vegetation, resulting in an increase in more destructive and more frequent wildfires. Read More...

Tags: Land management, Spain, economics, wildfire prediction, wildfire

In the wake of devastating wildfires, two opposing forces are creating an unlikely alliance in an effort to safeguard the future of Arizona’s forests.

For many years, loggers and environmentalists have been seen as being diametrically opposed to one other but a determination by both sides to prevent the wholesale destruction of The Grand Canyon State’s vital forests has brought them together. Read More...

Tags: wildfire prediction, wildfire prevention, climate change