2008 Forest Fires in the Northern California, USA

Abstract

In recent years, severe wildland fires have occurred worldwide in regions under the influence of a Mediterranean climate. Recent fires in Greece (August 2007), southern California (October 2007), northern California (June 2008), and Victoria, Australia (February 2008) resulted in human fatalities. This paper describes one of the largest outbreaks of forest fires in northern California that occurred during June of 2008. This widespread outbreak of over 800 fires was caused by dry lightning storms that followed one of the driest springs on record. Remotely sensed data from NASA (TERRA, GOES, and MODIS) and weather data from NOAA (vertical air temperature profiles) are used to describe and explain the large fire outbreak. Results of field research were also discussed to explain the reasons for the long lasted active forest fires after the "historical" lightning ignition.