In a nutshell: Learn about commonalities and unique events within the 10 largest Southwestern fires of 2024 and hear a meteorologist explore the fire season outlook and expectations for fire weather behavior in 2025.
Recorded on: Thursday, May 1, 2025
Description: Most frequent-fire forests throughout the Intermountain West have been degraded during the last 150 years and, as a result, are highly susceptible to damaging stand-replacing fires and increased insect and disease epidemics. To track the causes, consequences, and patterns of fire in the Southwest, the Southwest Fire Science Consortium and Forest Stewards Guild compile an annual report on the 10 largest fires of the previous fire season. In this webinar, report authors review the top 10 fires of 2024 and look ahead to the fire forecast for 2025. Presenters provide historical context for 2024 fire data, including trends and outliers in the timing, management costs, vegetation, and burn severity, and discuss the fire season outlook and summer weather forecast for the Southwest in 2025. All Southwest Wildfire Season Overviews can be found on the Consortium website at www.swfireconsortium.org/wildfire-season-overview/.
Speakers: Dr. Zander Evans, Executive Director with the Forest Stewards Guild; Richard Naden, Fire Weather Meteorologist with the National Park Service; Kerry Jones, Meteorologist, Air Quality Smoke, and Water Quality Specialist with the USDA Forest Service.
Additional Resources:
- National Interagency Coordination Center Fire Weather Outlooks
- Southwest Coordination Center 7-day fire potential outlooks
- Previous years’ fire season overview reports
- Federal wildfire incident tracking resource
- US Geological Survey resource for evaluating wildfire burn severity
- Example of the ICS-209s program
- Energy Release Component (ERC) chart 1 and chart 2
- Human ignitions webinar series
- Publication on Fire in the Sonoran Desert
This webinar is co-hosted by the Arizona Wildfire Initiative.
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