Red Flag Guidance/Verification Matrix

Something that is used to estimate wildfire activity for a region is the Red Flag Guidance/ Verification Matrix, or otherwise known as a Red Flag Warning. A Red Flag Warning is an estimation issued by the United States National Weather Service to inform fireman as well as land management agencies that conditions are susceptible to wildfire activity. Besides the warning system used for this activity, there are various environmental factors that can affect a fire. Things such as temperature, wind, precipitation and relative humidity are all things that influence the beginning of a fire, its behavior, or fire suppression. For example, the higher the relative humidity is as well as the speed of the wind are factors that increase the need for a

The term fire severity was created due to the need to provide a description of how the intensity of a fire affected ecosystems. Fire severity is essentially used as a system of measuring the loss or decomposition of organic matter, both aboveground and belowground. The limitations of fire severity are that it is difficult to measure the loss or decomposition of organic matter. There are essentially three categories that determines a fires severity (unburned/light, moderate, and deep), however they do not predict the recovery of the land. Its limited to simply describing how the much damage an area endured during a wildfire. If the Earths climate continues to increase its temperature, its impact on fire severity will have a direct relationship. In other words, fire severity will increase as the climates average temperature increases because warmer weather allows for the proper conditions for more wildfire

Figuring out the rate of spread is one of the most significant systems used in forest fire science because is provides vital information about how fast a fire is moving so that warnings can be issued to those occupying that land. The limitations of fireline intensity are that it is very difficult to measure correctly. In other words, measuring something like fireline intensity is often difficult because people tend to exclude other factors, such as post-frontal smoldering, that impact the final outcome. If every single factor is not included or measured directly, calculating the fireline intensity becomes a much more daunting challenge. Climate change definitely has the ability to alter fireline intensity. It can alter fire size, frequency and how long a fire season will