Climate is a major driver of regionally synchronous fires in many regions of the US. Regional fire events, like those that occurred in the Northern Rockies in 1910, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2002, typically occurred during years when drought was similarly extensive, and account for the majority of area burned.

During such years, the threats to people and their property are highest, because fires during these years can quickly overwhelm our ability to suppress them. Furthermore, regional fire events play a critical role in governing ecosystem dynamics at broad scales. Predicting the climate conditions under which these ecologically and socially important regional fire years occur would have major benefits for fire management in the US.

The Joint Fire Science Program has funded this 3-year research project to identify the climate drivers of regional fire and fuel dynamics in the Northern Rockies in the past, present, and future. We will identify regional fire years from two sources: multicentury tree-ring reconstructions and multidecadal fire atlases.