The FLARE Workshop's Future Directions for Defining Extreme Fire

In September 2023, the Fire Learning AcRoss the Earth Systems (FLARE) workshop brought together fire scientists across a wide range of disciplines, including physical and social scientists and representatives of fire-prone communities, with the aim to facilitate a transdisciplinary discussion.

The FLARE community identified characterizing “fire and extreme events” as a research priority. In recent years, there has been a rise in extreme weather events worldwide. Both in science and in the media, the word “extreme” is increasingly used to describe the impact of natural phenomena on ecosystems, human health, the carbon cycle, and economies. However, the severity associated with recent changes in fire activity is not well defined. Assessing the cause(s) and consequences of a fire event on a global scale is complex, this leads to different definitions and assessment techniques/methods being used in the range of disciplines that study fire, including ecology, biology, hydrology, atmospheric science, marine science, Earth science, or public health. Additionally, it is hard to disentangle human land management and climate change induced changes in fire regimes.

Using examples from the 2023 Boreal fires, this presentation discusses future directions for defining extreme fires. Fires are also part of the broader interconnected Earth System and influenced by droughts, heat waves, and altered landscapes. In turn, post-fire effects such as erosion, landslides, and floods create cascade events that impact both human societies and natural ecosystems. We discuss this broader view of including fire extremes as part of compound extreme events in order to fully assess their impact. We finish by providing recommendations for the fire science community to tackle this challenge. Some of which may include more proactive modeling, observation and communication tools aimed at providing relevant and timely information.