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Analysis of lightning-induced forest fires in Austria |
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| Authors: | Mortimer M Müller Harald Vacik Gerhard Diendorfer Alexander Arpaci Herbert Formayer Hartmut Gossow |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, Institute of Silviculture, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Peter Jordan Str. 82, 1190, Vienna, Austria 2. Department ALDIS (Austrian Lightning Detection & Information System), Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE), Kahlenberger Stra?e 2A, 1190, Vienna, Austria 3. Department of Water, Atmosphere and Environment, Institute of Meteorology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Peter Jordan Str. 82, 1190, Vienna, Austria 4. Department of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Research, Institute of Wildlife Biology and Game Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Gregor Mendel Str. 33, 1190, Vienna, Austria |
| Abstract: | 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. |
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