Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Modelling Fire Weather And Fire Spread Rates For Two Bushfires Near Sydney, M S. Speer, L M. Leslie, R Morison, W Catchpole, Ross Bradstock, R Bunker

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

The observed headfire rates of spread of two severe wildfires in heathlands near Sydney were compared with predictions made using a meteorological model to forecast wind speeds and a new simple empirical fire behaviour model that uses fuel height and wind speed at 2 m above ground to predict rate of spread. The predicted rates of spread, using both actual and predicted wind speeds, compared favourably with observed rates of spread averaged over 2 hours and 5.5 hours for the Bell Range and Royal National Park fires respectively.