Determining Effects of Area Burned and Fire Severity on Carbon Cycling and Emissions in Siberia

The Russian boreal forest contains about 25% of the global terrestrial biomass, and even a higher percentage of the carbon stored in litter and soils. Fire burns large areas annually, much of it in low-severity surface fires – but data on fire area and impacts or extent of varying fire severity are poor. Changes in land use, cover, and disturbance patterns such as those predicted by global climate change models, have the potential to greatly alter current fire regimes in boreal forests and to significantly impact global carbon budgets. The extent and global importance of fires in the boreal zone have often been greatly underestimated. For the 1998 fire season we estimate from remote sensing data that about 13.3 million ha burned in Siberia. This is about 5 times higher than estimates from the Russian Aerial Forest Protection Service (Avialesookhrana) for the same period. We estimate that fires in the Russian boreal forest in 1998 constituted some 14–20% of average annual global carbon emissions from forest fires. Average annual emissions from boreal zone forests may be equivalent to 23–39% of regional fossil fuel emissions in Canada and Russia, respectively. But the lack of accurate data and models introduces large potential errors into these estimates. Improved monitoring and understanding of the landscape extent and severity of fires and effects of fire on carbon storage, air chemistry, vegetation dynamics and structure, and forest health and productivity are essential to provide inputs into global and regional models of carbon cycling and atmospheric chemistry.     

Greenhouse gas induced changes in the fire risk in Brazil in ECHAM5/MPI-OM coupled climate model

Vegetation fires are the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. The reduction of the climatic impact of these emissions is related to the vegetation susceptibility to fire (fire risk), as well as to the understanding of possible implications of changes in atmospheric circulation on fire risk in the near-future. This study evaluates the environmental susceptibility to fire occurrence based on a Potential Fire Index (PFI). Two climate simulations from the ECHAM5/MPI-OM climate model have been used to calculate the PFI: present day (1980–2000) and an experiment for the end of the twenty-first century (2080–2100). The results indicate that the proposed PFI methodology could properly reproduce the areas with the highest fire incidence under present conditions. Moreover, it was found that under greenhouse warming conditions the PFI foresees an increase in the fire risk area, particularly for the Amazon region. We concluded, furthermore, that changes of vegetation predicted to occur in the future lead to substantial modifications in the magnitude of the PFI, and may potentially extend the length of the fire season due to induced longer drought periods as compared to current conditions.     

Human Strategies for Coping with El Niño Related Drought in Amazônia

This article reports on findings of a research project examining farmers' coping strategies in the Brazilian Amazon in response to El Niño related weather events. We examine the extent of vulnerability of small and large farmers to these events in a tropical rainforest environment. Little attention has been given to the impact of ENSO events in Amazônia, despite evidence for devastating fires during ENSOs. Although we found a range of locally developed forecasting techniques and coping mechanisms, farmers have sustained significant losses, and we suggest that increased access to scientific forecasts would greatly enhance the ability of the farmers in our study area to cope with El Niño related weather events. In Amazônia the El Niño phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern leads to an extended period of reduced rainfall (Hobbs et al., 1998). This period of reduced rainfall can result in significant agricultural losses for farmers and ranchers in the area and in increased forest flammability. We have found that the majority of our study population uses several methods of forecasting, coping with, and adapting to drought events – and they recognize the economic losses they can experience and the loss of forests through the accidental spread of fire. The poorest farmers in our study area experience El Niño related drought events as a serious threat to their livelihoods. Their vulnerability is heightened during extreme climate events and our observations revealed that all of the farmers in our study would benefit from increased availability of improved forecast information relevant to their locality and their current farming strategies. This paper examines the availability and use of forecasts, the occurrence of accidental fires and techniques to prevent fire related losses, and the coping mechanisms for dealing with El Niño related drought in the agricultural regions surrounding the cities of Altamira and Santarém, in Pará State, Brazil. Distribution of an El Niño Prediction Kit at the end of the study and a series of workshops may lead to better local information on rainfall variability and create a farmer-maintained grid of collecting stations to sensitize farmers to the variability of precipitation in the region, and on their property.     

Estimating emissions from forest fires in Thailand using MODIS active fire product and country specific data

Studies on air pollution and climate change have shown that forest fires constitute one of the major sources of atmospheric trace gases and particulate matter, especially during the dry season. However, these emissions remain difficult to quantify due to uncertainty on the extent of burned areas and deficient knowledge on the forest fire behaviours in each country. This study aims to estimate emissions from forest fires in Thailand by using the combination of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for active fire products and country-specific data based on prescribed burning experiments. The results indicate that 27817 fire hotspots (FHS) associated with forest fires were detected by the MODIS during 2005–2009. These FHS mainly occurred in the northern, western, and upper north-eastern parts of Thailand. Each year, the most significant fires were observed during January–May, with a peak in March. The majority of forest FHS were detected in the afternoon. According to the prescribed burning experiments, the average area of forest burned per fire event was found to fall within the range 1.09 to 12.47 ha, depending upon the terrain slope and weather conditions. The total burned area was computed at 159309 ha corresponding to the surface biomass fuel of 541515 tons dry matter. The forest fire emissions were computed at 855593 tons of CO₂, 56318 tons of CO, 3682 tons of CH₄, 108 tons of N₂O, 4928 tons of PM_2.5, 4603 tons of PM₁₀, 357 tons of BC and 2816 tons of OC.     

Fire activity in Borneo driven by industrial land conversion and drought during El Niño periods, 1982–2010

Tropical rainforests, naturally resistant to fire when intact, are increasingly vulnerable to burning due to ongoing forest perturbation and, possibly, climatic changes. Industrial-scale forest degradation and conversion are increasing fire occurrence, and interactions with climate anomalies such as El Niño induced droughts can magnify the extent and severity of fire activity. The influences of these factors on fire frequency in tropical forests has not been widely studied at large spatio-temporal scales at which feedbacks between fire reoccurrence and forest degradation may develop. Linkages between fire activity, industrial land use, and El Niño rainfall deficits are acute in Borneo, where the greatest tropical fire events in recorded history have apparently occurred in recent decades. Here we investigate how fire frequency in Borneo has been influenced by industrial-scale agricultural development and logging during El Niño periods by integrating long-term satellite observations between 1982 and 2010 – a period encompassing the onset, development, and consolidation of its Borneo’s industrial forestry and agricultural operations as well as the full diversity of El Niño events. We record changes in fire frequency over this period by deriving the longest and most comprehensive spatio-temporal record of fire activity across Borneo using AVHRR Global Area Coverage (GAC) satellite data. Monthly fire frequency was derived from these data and modelled at 0.04° resolution via a random-forest model, which explained 56% of the monthly variation as a function of oil palm and timber plantation extent and proximity, logging intensity and proximity, human settlement, climate, forest and peatland condition, and time, observed using Landsat and similar satellite data. Oil-palm extent increased fire frequency until covering 20% of a grid cell, signalling the significant influence of early stages of plantation establishment. Heighted fire frequency was particularly acute within 10 km of oil palm, where both expanding plantation and smallholder agriculture are believed to be contributing factors. Fire frequency increased abruptly and dramatically when rainfall fell below 200 mm month⁻¹, especially as landscape perturbation increased (indicated by vegetation index data). Logging intensity had a negligible influence on fire frequency, including on peatlands, suggesting a more complex response of logged forest to burning than appreciated. Over time, the epicentres of high-frequency fires expanded from East Kalimantan (1980’s) to Central and West Kalimantan (1990’s), coincidentally but apparently slightly preceding oil-palm expansion, and high-frequency fires then waned in East Kalimantan and occurred only in Central and West Kalimantan (2000’s). After accounting for land-cover changes and climate, our model under-estimates observed fire frequency during ca. 1990–2002 and over-estimates it thereafter, suggesting that a multi-decadal shift to industrial forest conversion and forest landscapes may have diminished the propensity for high-frequency fires in much of this globally significant tropical region since ca. 2000.     

Sources of anthropogenic fire ignitions on the peat-swamp landscape in Kalimantan,Indonesia

Fire disturbance in many tropical forests, including peat swamps, has become more frequent and extensive in recent decades. These fires compromise a variety of ecosystem services, among which mitigating global climate change through carbon storage is particularly important for peat swamps. Indonesia holds the largest amount of tropical peat carbon globally, and mean annual CO₂ emissions from decomposition of deforested and drained peatlands and associated fires in Southeast Asia have been estimated at ∼2000 Mt y-1. A key component to understanding and therefore managing fire in the region is identifying the land use/land cover classes associated with fire ignitions. We assess the oft-asserted claim that escaped fires from oil palm concessions and smallholder farms near settlements are the primary sources of fire in a peat-swamp forest area in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, equivalent to around a third of Kalimantan's total peat area. We use the MODIS Active Fire product from 2000 to 2010 to evaluate the fire origin and spread on the land use/land cover classes of legal, industrial oil palm concessions (the only type of legal concession in the study area), non-forest, and forest, as well as in relation to settlement proximity. We find that most fires (68–71%) originate in non-forest, compared to oil palm concessions (17%–19%), and relatively few (6–9%) are within 5 km of settlements. Moreover, most fires started within oil palm concessions and in close proximity to settlements stay within those boundaries (90% and 88%, respectively), and fires that do escape constitute only a small proportion of all fires on the landscape (2% and 1%, respectively). Similarly, a small proportion of fire detections in forest originate from oil palm concessions (2%) and within close proximity to settlements (2%). However, fire ignition density in oil palm (0.055 ignitions km⁻²) is comparable to that in non-forest (0.060 km-2 ignitions km-²), which is approximately ten times that in forest (0.006 ignitions km⁻²). Ignition density within 5 km of settlements is the highest at 0.125 ignitions km⁻². Furthermore, increased anthropogenic activity in close proximity to oil palm concessions and settlements produces a detectable pattern of fire activity. The number of ignitions decreases exponentially with distance from concessions; the number of ignitions initially increases with distance from settlements, and, around from 7.2 km, then decreases with distance from settlements. These results refute the claim that most fires originate in oil palm concessions, and that fires escaping from oil palm concessions and settlements constitute a major proportion of fires in this study region. However, there is a potential for these land use types to contribute substantially to the fire landscape if their area expands. Effective fire management in this area should therefore target not just oil palm concessions, but also non-forested, degraded areas where ignitions and fires escaping into forest are most likely to occur.     

The impact of climate change on the risk of forest and grassland fires in Australia

We explore the impact of future climate change on the risk of forest and grassland fires over Australia in January using a high resolution regional climate model, driven at the boundaries by data from a transitory coupled climate model. Two future emission scenarios (relatively high and relatively low) are used for 2050 and 2100 and four realizations for each time period and each emission scenario are run. Results show a consistent increase in regional-scale fire risk over Australia driven principally by warming and reductions in relative humidity in all simulations, under all emission scenarios and at all time periods. We calculate the probability density function for the fire risk for a single point in New South Wales and show that the probability of extreme fire risk increases by around 25% compared to the present day in 2050 under both relatively low and relatively high emissions, and that this increases by a further 20% under the relatively low emission scenario by 2100. The increase in the probability of extreme fire risk increases dramatically under the high emission scenario by 2100. Our results are broadly in-line with earlier analyses despite our use of a significantly different methodology and we therefore conclude that the likelihood of a significant increase in fire risk over Australia resulting from climate change is very high. While there is already substantial investment in fire-related management in Australia, our results indicate that this investment is likely to have to increase to maintain the present fire-related losses in Australia.     

Interannual climate variation,land type and village livelihood effects on fires in Kalimantan,Indonesia

The increasing extent and frequency of fires globally requires nuanced understanding of the drivers of large-scale events for improved prevention and mitigation. Yet, the drivers of fires are often poorly understood by various stakeholders in spatially expansive and temporally dynamic landscapes. Further, perceptions about the main cause of fires vary amongst stakeholders, which amplify ongoing challenges from policies being implemented inconsistently across different governance levels. Here, we develop a spatially and temporally-explicit typology of fire prevalence across Kalimantan, Indonesia, a region with significant contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. Based on livelihood information and data on climate, soil type and forest degradation status, we find that in intact forest the density of fires in villages that largely coincide with oil palm concessions was twice as high as in villages outside the concessions across all years. Fires occurring in degraded land on mineral soil across all years were also most prevalent in villages with industrial plantations (oil palm or timber). On the other hand, in degraded peatland, where fires are most intense during dry years induced by the El Niño episodes, occurrence rates were high regardless of village primary livelihoods. Based on these findings we recommend two key priorities for fire mitigation going forward for policy across different governance levels in Kalimantan: degraded peatland as the priority area and industrial plantations as the priority sector. Our study suggests a fire prevention and mitigation approach, which accounts for climate, land type and village livelihood, has the potential to deliver more effective means of management.     

Analysis of lightning-induced forest fires in Austria

Besides human-caused fires, lightning is the major reason for forest fire ignition in Austria. In order to analyse the causes of ignition and to characterise lightning-induced forest fires, fire records were compared with the real appearance of lightning events by using the Austrian Lightning Detection and Information System for the period from 1993 to 2010. A probability was estimated for each forest fire being caused by lightning by using a decision tree and decision matrices based on flash characteristics (e.g. amplitude, time, location). It could be shown that 15 % of documented forest fires were lightning-caused. Nearly all lightning-caused fires were found during the summer months, whereas almost 40 % of all fires occurring from June to August were naturally caused. Most lightning-caused fires took place in the south and east of Austria. Lightning fires were more frequent at higher altitudes and primarily affected conifer forests. The median burned area was lower than that for anthropogenic forest fires.     

大兴安岭气候干湿变化及对森林火灾的影响

明确气候变化背景下大兴安岭林区气候干湿状况特征,揭示其对森林火灾的影响,可为该区域森林火灾管理和森林资源保护提供科学依据。基于大兴安岭林区1974—2016年标准化降水指数（SPI）,采用统计分析和对比分析方法,系统研究不同干湿情景对森林火灾发生次数及过火面积的影响,并讨论不同等级干旱对其影响的异同性。结果表明:1974—2016年,年、季尺度上大兴安岭林区气候均呈湿润化趋势。森林火灾发生次数多（少）和过火面积大（小）与气候的干湿状况（等级）基本一致,但森林火灾的发生次数与气候干湿状况相关更为密切。年尺度上,SPI与火灾次数呈负相关,与过火面积的自然对数则呈较弱的负相关;季尺度上,各季节SPI与对应的林火次数和过火面积自然对数均呈显著的负相关,但与过火面积的相关程度差异较大,以春季相关最为显著,秋季次之,夏季则相对较弱;不同季节SPI与年林火次数和过火面积自然对数呈负相关,前一年冬季SPI对当年火灾次数的贡献最大。可见,气候干湿状况对森林火灾的影响存在明显的滞后效应。SPI不仅能较好地反映区域气候的干湿状况,亦能较好地指示森林火灾发生的可能性及发生火灾的过火面积的相对变化情况,可为森林火灾预测和管理提供科学依据。     

Using Remote Sensing to Assess Russian Forest Fire Carbon Emissions

Russian boreal forests are subject to frequent wildfires. The resulting combustion of large amounts of biomass not only transforms forest vegetation, but it also creates significant carbon emissions that total, according to some authors, from 35–94 Mt C per year. These carbon emissions from forest fires should be considered an important part of the forest ecosystem carbon balance and a significant influence on atmospheric trace gases. In this paper we discuss a new method to assess forest fire damage. This method is based on using multi-spectral high-resolution satellite images, large-scale aerial photography, and declassified images obtained from the space-borne national security systems. A normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) difference image was produced from pre- and post-fire satellite images from SPOT/HRVIR and RESURS-O/MSU-E images. A close relationship was found between values of the NDVI difference image and forest damage level. High-resolution satellite data and large-scale aerial-photos were used to calibrate the NDVI-derived forest damage map. The method was used for mapping of forest fire extent and damage and for estimating carbon emissions from burned forest areas.     

Management alternatives to offset climate change effects on Mediterranean fire regimes in NE Spain

Fire regime is affected by climate and human settlements. In the Mediterranean, the predicted climate change is likely to exacerbate fire prone weather conditions, but the mid- to long-term impact of climate change on fire regime is not easily predictable. A negative feedback via fuel reduction, for instance, might cause a non-linear response of burned area to fire weather. Also, the number of fires escaping initial control could grow dramatically if the fire meteorology is just slightly more severe than what fire brigades are prepared for. Humans can directly influence fire regimes through ignition frequency, fire suppression and land use management. Here we use the fire regime model FIRE LADY to assess the impacts of climate change and local management options on number of fires, burned area, fraction of area burned in large fires and forest area during the twenty-first century in three regions of NE Spain. Our results show that currently fuel-humidity limited regions could suffer a drastic shift of fire regime with an up to 8 fold increase of annual burned area, due to a combination of fuel accumulation and severe fire weather, which would result in a period of unusually large fires. The impact of climate change on fire regime is predicted to be less pronounced in drier areas, with a gradual increase of burned area. Local fire prevention strategies could reduce but not totally offset climate induced changes in fire regimes. According to our model, a combination of restoring the traditional rural mosaic and classical fire prevention would be the most effective strategy, as a lower ignition frequency reduces the number of fires and the creation of agricultural fields in marginal areas reduces their extent.     

Spatially complex land change: The Indirect effect of Brazil's agricultural sector on land use in Amazonia

Soybean farming has brought economic development to parts of South America, as well as environmental hopes and concerns. A substantial hope resides in the decoupling of Brazil's agricultural sector from deforestation in the Amazon region, in which case expansive agriculture need not imply forest degradation. However, concerns have also been voiced about the potential indirect effects of agriculture. This article addresses these indirect effects for the case of the Brazilian Amazon since 2002. Our work finds that as much as thirty-two percent of deforestation, or the loss of more than 30,000 km² of Amazon forest, is attributable, indirectly, to Brazil's soybean sector. However, we also observe that the magnitude of the indirect impact of the agriculture sector on forest loss in the Amazon has declined markedly since 2006. We also find a shift in the underlying causes of indirect land use change in the Amazon, and suggest that land appreciation in agricultural regions has supplanted farm expansions as a source of indirect land use change. Our results are broadly congruent with recent work recognizing the success of policy changes in mitigating the impact of soybean expansion on forest loss in the Amazon. However, they also caution that the soybean sector may continue to incentivize land clearings through its impact on regional land markets.     

The Impact of Climate Change on Wildfire Severity: A Regional Forecast for Northern California

We estimated the impact of climatic change on wildland fire and suppression effectiveness in northern California by linking general circulation model output to local weather and fire records and projecting fire outcomes with an initial-attack suppression model. The warmer and windier conditions corresponding to a 2 × CO₂ climate scenario produced fires that burned more intensely and spread faster in most locations. Despite enhancement of fire suppression efforts, the number of escaped fires (those exceeding initial containment limits) increased 51% in the south San Francisco Bay area, 125% in the Sierra Nevada, and did not change on the north coast. Changes in area burned by contained fires were 41%, 41% and –8%, respectively. When interpolated to most of northern California's wildlands, these results translate to an average annual increase of 114 escapes (a doubling of the current frequency) and an additional 5,000 hectares (a 50% increase) burned by contained fires. On average, the fire return intervals in grass and brush vegetation types were cut in half. The estimates reported represent a minimum expected change, or best-case forecast. In addition to the increased suppression costs and economic damages, changes in fire severity of this magnitude would have widespread impacts on vegetation distribution, forest condition, and carbon storage, and greatly increase the risk to property, natural resources and human life.     

Brazil's Amazon forest in mitigating global warming: unresolved controversies

Brazil's Amazon rainforest provides an important environmental service with its storage of carbon, thereby reducing global warming. A growing number of projects and proposals intend to reward carbon storage services. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is currently a key issue for negotiations on an international agreement that is to take effect in 2013. Various issues require decisions that will have substantial impacts on both the effectiveness of mitigation and the scale of Amazonia's potential role. These decisions include the effects that money generated from payments can have, the spatial scale of mitigation (e.g. projects or countries and sub-national political units), whether to have voluntary or mandatory markets, and whether these reductions will generate carbon credits to offset emissions elsewhere. It is argued that national-level programmes, combined with a national target under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, are the best solution for Brazil in terms of both capturing international funding and stimulating the major cuts in global emissions that are needed to minimize climate risk to the Amazon rainforest. The high likelihood of passing a tipping point for maintaining the Amazon rainforest implies the need for urgency in altering current negotiating positions.     

内蒙古大兴安岭林区雷击火灾气候成因分析

利用常规天气图、数值预报产品、卫星云图以及溃变理论的预报工具V-3θ图,对2005年6月30日至7月2日发生在青藏高原东北侧甘肃省区域性持续暴雨天气过程进行了诊断应用综合分析.结果表明:副热带高压西伸北抬外围西南风气流控制青藏高原东北侧,当东北低涡、西风带的冷空气与西南风交汇时,触发强对流;850～200hPa有深厚的水汽层;700 hPa稳定的低涡切变为暴雨提供了强烈持续的辐合上升运动;卫星云图表明持续性暴雨由多个相继生消的中尺度对流系统影响造成的.基于溃变理论的预报方法在西北区域性持续暴雨的起报、结束及落区有很好的预测能力.     

多年冻土区森林大火对生态服务功能的影响研究

在气候变暖背景下,大兴安岭森林大火导致多年冻土退化,植被发生更新和演替,对森林生态系统服务功能造成重要影响。文中选取大兴安岭北部多年冻土区满归和阿龙山火烧区为研究对象,通过定量方法计算了林火后,固碳释氧效益损失;净化环境效益损失,包括吸收SO₂和粉尘净化价值;水文效益损失,包括防洪和涵养水源效益;小气候效益损失;保护野生生物以及游憩效益损失。研究发现,满归和阿龙山火烧后,生态系统服务效益损失重大。其中,固碳释氧效益和净化环境效益损失较大,分别占总效益损失的42.34%和41.94%;水文效益和保护野生生物效益损失较小,分别为2.82%和0.80%;小气候效益和游憩效益居中,分别占8.61%和3.49%。即使针叶林生态系统恢复到阔叶林生态系统,净化环境效益损失仍然可达69.3%。由此看来,保护多年冻土区的针叶林,减少森林火灾的发生对维持多年冻土区森林生态系统的稳定性和可持续发展至关重要。     

Climate,landowner residency,and land cover predict local scale fire activity in the Western Amazon

The incidence of escaped agricultural fire has recently been increasing in the Western Amazon, driven by climate variability, land use change, and changes in patterns of residency and land occupation. Preventing and mitigating the negative impacts of fire in the Amazon require a comprehensive understanding not only of what the drivers of fire activity are, but also how these drivers interact and vary across scales. Here, we combine multi-scalar data on land use, climate, and landowner residency to disentangle the drivers of fire activity over 10 years (2001–2010) on individual landholdings in a fire-prone region of the Peruvian Amazon. We examined the relative importance of and interactions between climate variability (drought intensity), land occupation (in particular, landowner absenteeism), and land cover variables (cover of fallow and pasture) for predicting both fire occurrence (whether or not fire was detected on a farm in a given year) and fire size. Drought intensity was the most important predictor of fire occurrence, but land-cover type and degree of landowner absenteeism increased fire probability when conditions were dry enough. On the other hand, drought intensity did not stand out relative to other significant predictors in the fire size model, where degree of landowner absenteeism in a village and percent cover of fallow in a village were also strongly associated with fire size. We also investigated to what extent these variables measured at the individual landholding versus the village scale influenced fire activity. While the predictors measured at the landholding and village scales were approximately of equal importance for modeling fire occurrence, only village scale predictors were important in the model of fire size. These results demonstrate that the relative importance of various drivers of fire activity can vary depending on the scale at which they are measured and the scale of analysis. Additionally, we highlight how a full understanding of the drivers of fire activity should go beyond fire occurrence to consider other metrics of fire activity such as fire size, as implications for fire prevention and mitigation can be different depending on the model considered. Drought early warning systems may be most effective for preventing fire in dry years, but management to address the impacts of landowner absenteeism, such as bolstering community fire control efforts in high-risk areas, could help minimize the size of fires when they do occur. Thus, interventions should focus on minimizing fire size as well as preventing fires altogether, especially because fire is an inexpensive and effective management tool that has been in use for millennia.     

湖南省森林火灾时空分布特征及其气象成因分析

利用湖南省2008-2017年10年森林火灾数据、卫星MODIS和VIIRS监测资料及常规气象资料，统计分析了湖南省森林火灾时空分布特征，分析结果表明：近10年湖南省森林火灾高发月份是2、3、4月， 3月最多，总次数为3800次，森林火灾在邵阳发生次数最多，郴州、长沙和永州次之。森林火灾受灾面积最大的是永州市、怀化市、邵阳市，达6800-7500公顷。重点分析了2018年2月14-19日湖南致灾严重的森林火灾过程与气象条件的关系，结果表明，森林火灾期间，气温偏高、相对湿度较小，降水量少，平均风速一般超过0.5m/s，火灾严重时段最大风速增大到6m/s左右，风向以偏东风和偏南风为主，湖南高低空受上下一致的西南风气流控制，天气形势较稳定。