DRIVERS OF BURNED AREA PATTERNS IN CERRADO: THE CASE OF MATOPIBA REGION

This work describes a database on holdover times of lightning-ignited wildfires (LIWs). Holdover time is defined as the time between lightning-induced fire ignition and fire detection. The database contains 42 datasets built with data on more than 152 375 LIWs from 13 countries in five continents from 1921 to 2020. This database is the first freely-available, harmonized and ready-to-use global source of holdover time data, which may be used to investigate LIWs and model the holdover phenomenon.

The article presents a database of reference sites for the validation of burned area products. We have compiled 2661 reference files from different international projects. The paper describes the methods used to generate and standardize the data. The Burned Area Reference Data (BARD) is publicly available and will facilitate the arduous task of validating burned area algorithms.

Portugal is recurrently affected by large wildfire events. We present a statistical model to estimate the probability that the summer burned area exceeds a given threshold. The model allows making outlooks of wildfire potential with up to 1 month in advance of the fire season. When applied to the 39-year period 1980-2018, only 1 severe (one weak) year is not anticipated as potentially severe (weak). The model will assist the fire community when planning prevention and combating fire events.