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HomeFire Behavior

Extreme Fire Behavior

This subtopic describes factors that encourage extreme fire behavior. It also includes case studies of fires that exhibited extreme fire behavior.

Upcoming Events

None.

Past Events

Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Salmon
October 11, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Helena
September 12, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Jackson
June 26, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Pocatello
May 18, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Twin Falls
May 17, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Boise
May 16, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in McCall
May 15, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Moscow
May 3, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Sandpoint
May 2, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Coeur d'Alene
May 1, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg, Idaho Tour
May 1, 2017 to October 11, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Seeley Lake
April 27, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Lincoln
April 26, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Kalispell
April 25, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg in Missoula
April 24, 2017
Era of Megafires - A Multi-Media Presentation with Dr. Paul Hessburg, Montana Tour
April 24, 2017 to September 12, 2017

Webinars & Recorded Media

Webinars

Recent Megafires Provide a Tipping Point for Desertification of Conifer Ecosystems
Mar 30, 2022
Daniel G. Neary
Extreme Wildfire Behavior Associated with Complex Terrain
Apr 1, 2021
Craig B. Clements
Fires of Unusual Size and the Weather
Nov 19, 2020
Brian E. Potter
A summary of fire season 2016 in Oregon and Washington
Dec 14, 2016
John Saltenberger
Transitioning from a small fire: fire behavior driving episodic fire growth after 1988 in Yellowstone National Park
Oct 6, 2016
Roy A. Renkin
Vortices and wildland fire
May 20, 2015
Scott L. Goodrick, Jason M. Forthofer
Critical fire weather patterns - Western United States
Feb 11, 2015
Paul A. Werth
Synthesis of knowledge of extreme fire behavior for fire managers
Dec 19, 2012
Paul A. Werth

Storymaps

The Marshall Fire
Feb 17, 2022
Theo Stein, Chelsea Thompson

Videos

Why We Can't Just Let Fire Burn
Feb 19, 2019
Colin C. Hardy
Inside the lab studying the growing threat of fire tornadoes
Sep 21, 2018
Mark A. Finney, Jason M. Forthofer
Twisp River Fire Learning Review Briefing
Dec 16, 2016
Your Home Can Survive a Wildfire
Nov 9, 2015
Jack D. Cohen
The Story Behind the Yellowstone Fires of 1988: retro Report
Sep 2, 2013
A deadly beauty: the danger of fire whirls
Jun 27, 2013
Jason M. Forthofer, Bret W. Butler
Close call - What you can learn from the Ahorn fire shelter deployment
Oct 11, 2011
Paul Keller

Research Briefs

2019 Inside the megafire
2012 Towards the understanding of extreme wildland fire behavior
Martin E. Alexander

Management/Planning Documents

1985 Fire Review of the 1985 Log Tom Fire Complex (Butte Fire)
Jerry Monesmith et al.

Syntheses

2016 Synthesis of knowledge of extreme fire behavior: volume 2 for fire behavior specialists, researchers, and meteorologists
Paul A. Werth et al.
2013 Crown fire behavior characteristics and prediction in conifer forests: a state-of-knowledge synthesis - Final Report to the Joint Fire Science Program
Martin E. Alexander et al.
2011 Review of fuel treatment effectiveness in forests and rangelands and a case study from the 2007 megafires in central, Idaho, USA
Andrew T. Hudak et al.
2011 Synthesis of knowledge of extreme fire behavior: Volume 1 for managers
Paul A. Werth et al.

Publications/Reports

2022 Wildfire–atmosphere interaction index for extreme-fire behaviour
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Tomàs Artés, Marc Castellnou, Tracy Houston Durrant, Jesús San-Miguel
2022 Fire ecology for the 21st century: conserving biodiversity in the age of megafire
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Dale G. Nimmo, Alan N. Andersen, Sally Archibald, Matthias M. Boer, Lluis Brotons, Catherine L. Parr, Morgan W. Tingley
2021 Resilient landscapes to prevent catastrophic forest fires: Socioeconomic insights towards a new paradigm
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Sven Wunder, David E. Calkin, Val Charlton, Sarah Feder, Inazio Martinez de Arano, Peter F. Moore, Francisco Rodriguez y Silva, Luca Tacconi, Cristina Vega-García
2021 Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Formation and Flame Precession of Fire Whirls: A Review
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Maryam Ghodrat, Farshad Shakeriaski, David James Nelson, Albert Simeoni
2021 The 1910 Wildfire Debacle*
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Stephen F. Arno
2020 Causes and consequences of Eastern Australia’s 2019–20 season of mega‐fires: A broader perspective
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Mark A. Adams, Majid Shadmanroodposhti, Mathias Neumann
2020 A broader perspective on the causes and consequences of eastern Australia's 2019–20 season of mega‐fires: A response to Adams et al.
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Ross A. Bradstock, Rachael H. Nolan, Luke Collins, Víctor Resco de Dios, Hamish G. Clarke, Meaghan E. Jenkins, Belinda Kenny, Matthais M. Boer
2020 What can we do differently about the extreme wildfire problem: An overview [Chapter 13]
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Fantina Tedim, Sarah M. McCaffrey, Vittorio Leone, Giuseppe M. Delogu, Marc Castelnou, Tara K. McGee, Jose Aranha
2020 Ground wind generated near the base by the massive convective column of very large-scale mass fires
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Michael Delichatsios, Jianping Zhang
2020 Extreme wildfire events and disasters : root causes and new management strategies
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
2020 Evolution of a pyrocumulonimbus event associated with an extreme wildfire in Tasmania, Australia
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Mercy N. Ndalila, Grant J. Williamson, Paul Fox-Hughes, J. Sharples, David M. J. S. Bowman
2020 Fuel treatment effectiveness in the context of landform, vegetation, and large, wind‐driven wildfires
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Susan J. Prichard, Nicholas A. Povak, Maureen C. Kennedy, David W. Peterson
2019 Flow visualization study of stationary fire whirls just downwind of meter-scale turbulent flames
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Masahiko Shinohara, Sanae Matsushima
2018 Deconstructing the King Megafire
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Janice L. Coen, E. Natasha Stavros, Jo Ann Fites-Kaufman
2018 Fire Control and the 2015 Canyon Creek Complex Fire
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Hutch Brown
2018 Switching on the Big Burn of 2017
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Jennifer Balch, Tania L. Schoennagel, A. Park Williams, John T. Abatzoglou, Megan E. Cattau, Nathan Mietkiewicz, Lise A. St. Denis
2018 Quantitative evaluation of the Haines Index’s ability to predict fire growth events
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Brian E. Potter
2018 Analysis of the physical processes associated with junction fires at laboratory and field scales
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
J. R. Raposo, Domingos Xavier Viegas, X. Xie, Miguel Almeida, A. R. Figueiredo, L. Porto, J. Sharples
2018 Fuel mass and stand structure 13 years after logging of a severely burned ponderosa pine forest in northeastern Oregon, U.S.A
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
James D. McIver, Roger D. Ottmar
2018 Effects of fuels management on fire intensity, rate of spread, severity, and resultant forest structure within the 2013 Rim Fire landscape - Final Report to the Joint Fire Science Program
Technical Report or White Paper
Brandon M. Collins, Jamie M. Lydersen, Van R. Kane, Nicholas A. Povak, Matthew L. Brooks, Douglas F. Smith
2018 Defining Extreme Wildfire Events: Difficulties, Challenges, and Impacts
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Fantina Tedim, Vittorio Leone, Malik Amraoui, Christophe Bouillon, Michael R. Coughlan, Giuseppe M. Delogu, Paulo M. Fernandes, Carmen Ferreira, Sarah M. McCaffrey, Tara K. McGee, Joana Parente, Douglas Paton, Mário G. Pereira, Luís M. Ribeiro, Domingos Xavier Viegas, Gavriil Xanthopoulos
2018 The Cooney Ridge Fire Experiment: An Early Operation to Relate Pre-, Active, and Post-Fire Field and Remotely Sensed Measurements
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Andrew T. Hudak, Patrick H. Freeborn, Sarah A. Lewis, Sharon M. Hood, Helen Y. Smith, Colin C. Hardy, Robert J. Kremens, Bret W. Butler, Casey Teske, Robert G. Tissell, Lloyd P. Queen, Bryce L. Nordgren, Benjamin C. Bright, Penelope Morgan, Philip J. Riggan, Lee Macholz, Leigh B. Lentile, Jim Riddering, Edward E. Mathews
2017 Human exposure and sensitivity to globally extreme wildfire events
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
David M. J. S. Bowman, Grant J. Williamson, John T. Abatzoglou, Crystal A. Kolden, Mark A. Cochrane, Alistair M. S. Smith
2017 Interacting effects of fire severity, time since fire and topography on vegetation structure after wildfire
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Michelle Bassett, Steven W.J. Leonard, Evelyn K. Chia, Michael F. Clarke, Andrew F. Bennett
2017 Evidence of fuels management and fire weather influencing fire severity in an extreme fire event
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Jamie M. Lydersen, Brandon M. Collins, Matthew L. Brooks, John R. Matchett, Kristen L. Shive, Nicholas A. Povak, Van R. Kane, Douglas F. Smith
2016 Quantifying the influence of previously burned areas on suppression effectiveness and avoided exposure: a case study of the Las Conchas Fire
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Matthew P. Thompson, Patrick H. Freeborn, Jon D. Rieck, David E. Calkin, Julie W. Gilbertson-Day, Mark A. Cochrane, Michael S. Hand
2016 Synthesis of knowledge of extreme fire behavior: volume 2 for fire behavior specialists, researchers, and meteorologists
Synthesis, Technical Report or White Paper
Paul A. Werth, Brian E. Potter, Martin E. Alexander, Miguel G. Cruz, Craig B. Clements, Mark A. Finney, Jason M. Forthofer, Scott L. Goodrick, Chad M. Hoffman, William Matt Jolly, Sara S. McAllister, Roger D. Ottmar, Russell A. Parsons
2016 Near-term probabilistic forecast of significant wildfire events for the western United States
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Haiganoush K. Preisler, Karen L. Riley, Crystal S. Stonesifer, David E. Calkin, William Matt Jolly
2015 Future mega-fires and smoke impacts
Technical Report or White Paper
Narasimhan K. Larkin, John T. Abatzoglou, Donald McKenzie, Brian E. Potter, E. Ashley Steel, Brian J. Stocks
2015 Seasonal reversal of the influence of El Niño–Southern Oscillation on very large wildfire occurrence in the interior northwestern United States
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Renaud Barbero, John T. Abatzoglou, Timothy J. Brown
2014 Impacts of mega-fires on large U.S. urban area air quality under changing climate and fuels
Technical Report or White Paper
Yongqiang Liu, Scott L. Goodrick, John A. Stanturf, Hanqin Tian
2014 Modeling very large-fire occurrences over the continental United States from weather and climate forcing
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Renaud Barbero, John T. Abatzoglou, E. Ashley Steel, Narasimhan K. Larkin
2014 Crown fire potential in lodgepole pine forests during the red stage of mountain pine beetle attack
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Wesley G. Page, Michael J. Jenkins, Martin E. Alexander
2014 Defining extreme wildland fires using geospatial and ancillary metrics
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Karen O. Lannom, Wade T. Tinkham, Alistair M. S. Smith, John T. Abatzoglou, Beth A. Newingham, Troy E. Hall, Penelope Morgan, Eva K. Strand, Travis B. Paveglio, John Anderson, Aaron M. Sparks
2014 Regional projections of the likelihood of very large wildland fires under a changing climate in the contiguous western United States
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
E. Natasha Stavros, John T. Abatzoglou, Donald McKenzie, Narasimhan K. Larkin
2013 Fire weather case study - Mann Gulch Fire, Montana
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Paul A. Werth
2013 Modelling conditional burn probability patterns for large wildland fires
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Pamela S. Ziesler, Douglas B. Rideout, Robin Reich
2013 Fire behaviour case study of two early winter grass fires in southern Alberta, 27 November 2011
Technical Report or White Paper
Martin E. Alexander, Mark J. Heathcott, Randall L. Schwanke
2013 Crown fire behavior characteristics and prediction in conifer forests: a state-of-knowledge synthesis - Final Report to the Joint Fire Science Program
Synthesis, Technical Report or White Paper
Martin E. Alexander, Miguel G. Cruz, Nicole M. Vaillant, David L. Peterson
2013 Quantifying the potential impacts of fuel treatments on wildfire suppression costs
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Matthew P. Thompson, Nicole M. Vaillant, Jessica R. Haas, Krista M. Gebert, Keith Stockmann
2012 Fourmile Canyon Fire Findings
Technical Report or White Paper
Russell T. Graham, Mark A. Finney, Charles W. McHugh, Jack D. Cohen, David E. Calkin, Richard D. Stratton, Ned Nikolov
2012 Modeling tree-level fuel connectivity to evaluate the effectiveness of thinning treatments for reducing crown fire potential
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Marco A. Contreras, Russell A. Parsons, Woodam Chung
2012 Numerical simulation of crown fire hazard immediately after bark beetle-caused mortality in lodgepole pine forests
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Chad M. Hoffman, Penelope Morgan, William E. Mell, Russell A. Parsons, Eva K. Strand, Stephen Cook
2012 The Waldo Canyon Fire: Fires on the Colorado Front Range and Home Destruction - A Report to the Pike and San Isabel National Forests
Technical Report or White Paper
Richard D. Stratton
2011 How fuel treatments saved homes from the 2011 Wallow fire
Technical Report or White Paper
Pam Bostwick, James P. Menakis, Tim Sexton
2011 Review of fuel treatment effectiveness in forests and rangelands and a case study from the 2007 megafires in central, Idaho, USA
Synthesis, Technical Report or White Paper
Andrew T. Hudak, Ian Rickert, Penelope Morgan, Eva K. Strand, Sarah A. Lewis, Peter R. Robichaud, Chad M. Hoffman, Zachary A. Holden
2011 Both topography and climate affected forest and woodland burn severity in two regions of the western US
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Gregory K. Dillon, Zachary A. Holden, Penelope Morgan, Michael A. Crimmins, Emily K. Heyerdahl, Charles H. Luce
2011 Synthesis of knowledge of extreme fire behavior: Volume 1 for managers
Synthesis, Technical Report or White Paper
Paul A. Werth, Brian E. Potter, Craig B. Clements, Mark A. Finney, Scott L. Goodrick, Martin E. Alexander, Miguel G. Cruz, Jason M. Forthofer, Sara S. McAllister
2011 Linking 3D spatial models of fuels and fire: effects of spatial heterogeneity on fire behavior
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Russell A. Parsons, William E. Mell, Peter McCauley
2010 Assessing crown fire potential in coniferous forests of western North America: a critique of current approaches and recent simulation studies
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Miguel G. Cruz, Martin E. Alexander
2010 How big was Dodge's escape fire?
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Martin E. Alexander
2010 Characterization of convective heating in full scale wildland fires
Conference Proceedings
Bret W. Butler
2010 In-situ characterization of wildland fire behavior
Conference Proceedings
Bret W. Butler, Daniel M. Jimenez, Jason M. Forthofer, Paul Sopko, Kyle S. Shannon, James J. Reardon
2010 Large scale fire whirls: can their formation be predicted?
Conference Proceedings
Jason M. Forthofer, Bret W. Butler
2009 Fuel treatments, fire suppression, and their interaction with wildfire and its impact: the Warm Lake experience during the Cascade Complex of wildfires in central Idaho, 2007
Technical Report or White Paper
Russell T. Graham, Theresa B. Jain, Mark Loseke
2009 An analysis of Dodge's escape fire on the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire in terms of a survival zone for wildland firefighters
Conference Proceedings
Martin E. Alexander, Mark Y. Ackerman, Gregory J. Baxter
2009 January 31st 2009 off-season grassland wildfire
Technical Report or White Paper
Robert W. Hoenisch
2009 The 1988 fires of Yellowstone and beyond as a wildland fire behavior case study
Technical Report or White Paper
Martin E. Alexander
2007 An assessment of fuel treatments on three large 2007 Pacific Northwest fires
Technical Report or White Paper
Steve Harbert, Andrew T. Hudak, Laura Mayer, T. D. Rich, Sarah Robertson
2007 A fuel treatment reduces fire severity and increases suppression efficiency in a mixed conifer forest
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Jason J. Moghaddas, Larry Craggs
2007 Testing the modeled effectiveness of an operational fuel reduction treatment in a small western Montana interface landscape using two spatial scales
Conference Proceedings
Michael G. Harrington, Erin Noonan-Wright, Mitchell Doherty
2006 Organizational characteristics that contribute to success in engaging the public to accomplish fuels management at the wilderness/non-wilderness interface
Conference Proceedings
Katie Knotek, Alan E. Watson
2005 Optimizing landscape treatments for reducing wildfire risk and improving ecological sustainability of ponderosa pine forests with mixed severity fire regimes - Part 2 - Final Report to the Joint Fire Science Program
Technical Report or White Paper
Merrill R. Kaufmann, Jimmie D. Chew, J. Greg Jones
2004 'Brewer fire mystery' discussion
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Stephen A. Eckert, Martin E. Alexander
2003 Fire whirls, fire tornados, and fire storms: physical and numerical modeling
Conference Proceedings
Robert N. Meroney
2003 Wildland fire behavior case studies and analysis: part 2
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
2003 Assessing the value of increased model resolution in forecasting fire danger
Conference Proceedings
Jeanne L. Hoadley, Miriam L. Rorig, Kenneth Westrick, Larry S. Bradshaw, Sue A. Ferguson, Scott L. Goodrick, Paul A. Werth
2000 The Mann Gulch Fire and the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System
Conference Proceedings
Martin E. Alexander
1997 Wildfire case study: Butte City Fire, southeastern Idaho, July 1, 1994
Technical Report or White Paper
Bret W. Butler, Timothy D. Reynolds
1994 Fire growth maps for the 1988 Greater Yellowstone Area fires
Technical Report or White Paper
Richard C. Rothermel, Roberta A. Hartford, Carolyn H. Chase
1993 The evaluation of Idaho wildfire growth using the Haines Index
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Paul A. Werth, Richard Ochoa
1992 Fuel moisture, forest type, and lightning-caused fire in Yellowstone National Park
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Roy A. Renkin, Don G. Despain
1991 The 1985 Butte fire in central Idaho: a Canadian perspective on the associated burning conditions
Conference Proceedings, Technical Report or White Paper
Martin E. Alexander
1991 Predicting behavior of the 1988 Yellowstone fires: projections versus reality
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Richard C. Rothermel
1991 The 1985 Butte fire in central Idaho: a Canadian perspective on the associated burning conditions
Conference Proceedings, Technical Report or White Paper
Martin E. Alexander
1991 Predicting behavior and size of crown fires in the northern Rocky Mountains
Technical Report or White Paper
Richard C. Rothermel
1988 Help with making crown fire hazard assessments
Conference Proceedings, Technical Report or White Paper
Martin E. Alexander
1988 Help with making crown fire hazard assessments
Conference Proceedings, Technical Report or White Paper
Martin E. Alexander
1985 Behavior of the life-threatening Butte Fire: August 27-29, 1985
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Richard C. Rothermel, Robert W. Mutch
1984 Modeling behavior of prescribed fires in Yosemite National Park
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Jan W. van Wagtendonk, Stephen J. Botti
1984 Wildland fires: predicting the behavior of wildland fires-among nature's most potent forces-can save lives, money, and natural resources
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Frank A. Albini
1975 Broadcast burning in larch-fir clearcuts: the Miller Creek-Newman Ridge study
Technical Report or White Paper
William R. Beaufait, Charles E. Hardy, William C. Fischer
1973 Meteorological factors in the Sundance Fire run
Technical Report or White Paper
Arnold I. Finklin
1968 Sundance Fire: an analysis of fire phenomena
Technical Report or White Paper
Hal E. Anderson
1951 Fire behavior in Northern Rocky Mountain Forests
Technical Report or White Paper
Jack S. Barrows
1937 Death in Blackwater Canyon
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Erle Kauffman
1932 Meteorological conditions affecting the Freeman Lake (Idaho) Fire
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
George M. Jemison
1927 Meteorological factors in the Quartz Creek forest fire
Book or Chapter or Journal Article
Harry T. Gisborne