LANL study finds wildfire-scorched areas prone to reburning
Forests untouched by flames for decades draw scrutiny from fire managers who view the buildup of brush, debris and dense tree cover as ripe for a catastrophic blaze.
Less attention is given to burn areas where wildfires have roared through because the traditional view is the excess flammable material was consumed and the trees thinned, making the forest less prone to another fire.
But as wildfires have grown more frequent — and larger — in the West amid the nearly quarter-century drought magnified by climate change, so, too, have repeat wildfires in areas that were already scorched.
As one might expect, some forested areas are more susceptible to reburning.
In a Los Alamos National Laboratory study, scientists looked at landscapes in 11 Western states that were burned by multiple fires within a 20-year period.
They discovered they could gauge the likelihood of a reburn in an area based on three factors: seasonal temperature, moisture loss from plants and wind speed.
Those are the main drivers that sweep fires across a landscape multiple times and should be considered when deciding where to conduct prescribed burns or mechanical tree thinning — or perhaps try a different treatment method altogether, according to the study.
