Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Modeling Moisture Content Of Fine Dead Wildland Fuels: Input To The Behave Fire Prediction System, United States Department Of Agriculture, Forest Service

Wildfires

A method for predicting the time-dependent nature of fine fuel moisture is badly needed to support fire behavior prediction systems used in fire management. Of the models available, none met all the requirements of the BEHAVE fire behavior prediction system. The Canadian Fire Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC) came closest to meeting our needs and was selected as a base model. Improvements to the FFMC were concentrated on providing a means of accounting for annual and diurnal variation due to solar heating of woody fuels. This was necessary because the FFMC was developed for fuels located within forest stands, a generally …