Abstract
The Mediterranean region is characterized by the frequent occurrence of summer wildfires, representing an environmental and socioeconomic burden. Some Mediterranean countries (or provinces) are particularly prone to large fires, namely Portugal, Galicia (Spain), Greece, and southern France. Additionally, the Mediterranean basin corresponds to a major hotspot of climate change, and anthropogenic warming is expected to increase the total burned area due to fires in Mediterranean Europe. Here, we propose to classify summer large fires for fifty-four provinces of the Iberian Peninsula according to their local-scale weather conditions and fire danger weather conditions. A composite analysis was used to investigate the impact of local and regional climate drivers at different timescales, and to identify distinct climatologies associated with the occurrence of large fires. Cluster analysis was also used to identify a limited set of fire weather types, each characterized by a combination of meteorological conditions. For each of the provinces, two significant fire weather types were identified—one dominated by high positive temperature anomalies and negative humidity anomalies, and the other by intense zonal wind anomalies with two distinct subtypes in the Iberian Peninsula., allowing for the identification of three distinct regions.
Highlights
Wildfires are a natural phenomenon [1] and occur with varying regularity and severity across almost every biome on Earth [2]
The meteorological characteristics associated with FWT1, namely high temperature and low relative humidity, are described as among the predominant conditions associated with the occurrence of large fires in the Iberian Peninsula
This study proposes to classify summer large fires for fifty-four provinces of the Iberian Peninsula according to their local-scale weather conditions based on composite and cluster analysis
Summary
Wildfires are a natural phenomenon [1] and occur with varying regularity and severity across almost every biome on Earth [2]. The Mediterranean region is characterized by the frequent occurrence of large summer wildfires, being by far the European region with the largest total burned area, with an average of 4500 km per year [3]. The relevance of wildfires is not homogeneous within the Mediterranean basin, with some specific countries (or provinces) being prone to large fires, namely Portugal, Galicia (Spain), Greece and southern France [4,5,6]. Numerous features make the landscape of Mediterranean Europe dissimilar from those of the rest of the European continent, and these differences are mostly related to the climate and the long and intense impact of humans [9], and reflect the role of fire [10]. Since the second half of the 20th century, some European Mediterranean countries have experienced profound social and economic changes.
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