Climatic Controls on Historical Wildfires in West Virginia, 1939-2008

Abstract

Interannual climatic variability strongly influences patterns of burning in many regions and this control may extend to fire regimes dominated by anthropogenic ignitions or fire suppression. A close linkage between fire and climate could reduce the importance of local processes, such as fuel accumulation, structure, species composition, and even human land use. Here we: (1) summarize historical fire atlases collected by the West Virginia Division of Forestry (1939-2008) in the context of climate and spatial variability; (2) identify the seasonal climatic drivers of fire activity in West Virginia; and (3) define the spatial pattern of fire occurrence from 2001 to 2008. Between 2001 and 2008, 99.9% of fires were recorded as anthropogenic ignitions. More fires tended to burn in the spring, but total area burned was higher in the fall. Same-season precipitation accounts for 27.4 to 32.2% of the variance in area burned and number of fires in spring and fall, with low precipitation leading to larger numbers and sizes of fires. Large fires (>500 ha) are clustered in the southern portion of West Virginia, an area dominated by surface mining (the southern coal fields). This cluster of large fires extends into eastern Kentucky and western Virginia and may be the result of steep topography, local land use, and a culture of incendiarism.