Identifying local‐scale meteorological conditions favorable to large fires in Brazil

Abstract

This study aims to investigate local‐scale meteorological conditions associated with large fires in Brazil during recent decades. We assess whether there are large fire types with preceding predictors. Our results show that large fires, defined with a threshold of a daily burned area >95th percentile of the historical record, mainly occur in August and September in Brazil, and Amazônia and Cerrado experience much higher numbers of large fires than the other biomes. There are two large fire types that have robust meteorological signatures: (1) a wind driven type, characterized by peak wind speed on the day of the fire, and anomalously high wind speed a few (∼3) days before and after the fire; and (2) a Hot‐Drought driven type, characterized by anomalously high temperature, low relative humidity, and consistent drought conditions indicated by anomalously high fuel aridity starting as far back as 5 months prior to the fires. A third one is characterized by no anomalous meteorological conditions. The wind driven type most frequently occurs in southern and southeastern Amazônia, Pantanal, and western and northern‐to‐central Cerrado, with some occurrences over the western Caatinga region bordering Cerrado, southern Cerrado, and southern Mata Atlântica; whereas the Hot‐Drought driven type most frequently occurs in southern and southeastern Amazônia, Pantanal and western and northern‐to‐central Cerrado, with some occurrences over the western Caatinga region bordering Cerrado, southern Cerrado, central‐to‐southern Mata Atlântica, and a few occurrences over Northern Brazil where the Amazônia meets Roraima. Southern and southeastern Amazônia, Pantanal and western and northern‐to‐central Cerrado are the major large fire prone regions. Our results highlight that understanding the temporal and spatial variability of the meteorological conditions associated with large fires is essential for developing spatially explicit forecasting, and future projections of large fire hazards under climate change in Brazil, in particular the Hot‐Drought driven type.