Large-scale patterns of forest fire occurrence in the conterminous United States and Alaska, 2009

Potter, K.M. 2013. Large-scale patterns of forest fire occurrence in the conterminous United States and Alaska, 2009. Chapter 3 in K.M. Potter and B.L. Conkling, eds., Forest Health Monitoring: National Status, Trends and Analysis, 2010. General Technical Report SRS-176. Asheville, North Carolina: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. pp. 31-39.

Forest fire occurrence outside the historic range of frequency and intensity can result in extensive economic and ecological impacts. The detection of regional patterns of fire occurrence can allow for the identification of areas at greatest risk of significant impact and for the selection of locations for more intensive analysis. In 2009, the Central California Coast experienced the most fires per 100 km2 of forested area, while ecoregions in the southern plains of Oklahoma and Texas also had high densities of forest fire occurrence. In Alaska, an extremely high density of forest fires occurred in the Yukon Flats ecoregion. Several geographical hot spots of fire occurrence were located near the Pacific Coast and throughout the coastal plains of the South. The pattern and degree of clustering of these hot spots suggests that fires were more evenly distributed across the conterminous States than in recent years, with slightly higher concentrations in a few areas.