Have you ever wondered how scientists determine the burn severity of wildfire?
Wildland Fire Science
Media Kit
Media Kit
Science is fundamental to understanding wildfire's causes, consequences, and benefits before, during, and after the flames.
Useful Materials
USGS provides valuable tools, resources, and personnel before, during, and after wildfires. Here are a few helpful pieces of content that are worth sharing to highlight what we do. These different assets can be shared by public information officers to the local communities as handouts, published online or social media as content, or reviewed to help refresh what tools are out there.
Digital Content
Examples of social media tiles or assets that can be shared to better explain aspects of wildland fires.
Useful Links
The USGS produces many papers, products, and research on wildland fire. Here's links to a few of our more important fire-related tools people use to stay informed about conditions before, during, and after a wildfire.
Fire Danger Forecast
Fire Danger Forecast
Fire Danger Forecast
Wildland Fire Trends Tool
Wildland Fire Trends Tool
Wildland Fire Trends Tool
Landfire
Landfire
Landfire
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity
Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessment Clearinghouse
Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessment Clearinghouse
Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessment Clearinghouse
Emergency Assessment of Postfire Debris Flows
Emergency Assessment of Postfire Debris Flows
Emergency Assessment of Postfire Debris Flows
Featured Scientists
There are dozens of USGS scientists that work to better understand conditions, features, or threats related to wildland fires. Here's just a few of our researchers who continually work to help keep people safe and informed.
Post-wildfire water-quality
In response to the catastrophic fires of 2020 in Oregon, the ORWSC teamed up with the Water Mission Area’s Water Availability - Impacts of Extreme Events study to see the water quality effects in severely burned watersheds. In Oregon, four basins were selected to monitor the quality of the water in streams with continuous sensors and discrete water quality sampling.
Wildland Fire Trends Tool
The Wildland Fire Trends Tool (WFTT) is a data visualization and analysis tool that calculates and displays wildfire trends and patterns for the western U.S. based on user-defined regions of interest, time periods, and ecosystem types. Users can use the tool to easily generate a variety of maps, graphs, and tabular data products that are informative for all levels of expertise. The WFTT provides...
Economics of Wildland Fire
In recent decades, wildfires have increased in size and intensity, and the fire season has lengthened. This and other factors have increased wildfire suppression costs and risks to human health and safety. Economists in the Social and Economic Analysis Branch (SEA) at FORT investigate numerous aspects of wildland fire, its impacts, and how to mitigate the risk wildfire poses to people, resources...
Wildland Fire Science in Forests and Deserts
Fuel conditions and fire regimes in western forests and deserts have been altered due to past land management, biological invasions, and recent extreme weather events and climate shifts. These changes have created extreme fire risk to local and regional communities, threatening their economic health related to wildland recreation, forest production, livestock operations, and other uses of public...
Integrated Wildland Fire Science
The size and number of large wildland fires in the western United States have grown dramatically over the past decade, with a contingent rise in damages and suppression costs. This trend will likely continue with further growth of the wildland urban interface (WUI) into fire prone ecosystems, hazardous fuel conditions from decades of fire suppression, and a potentially increasing effect from...
Wildland Fire on Southwestern Landscapes
Wildland fire is a natural phenomenon that helps maintain and propagate healthy forest and rangeland ecosystems. However, it is a growing hazard as communities expand into the wildland urban-interface.
Wildfire Burn Severity Mapping
Have you ever wondered how scientists determine the burn severity of wildfire?
Temporal changes in rainfall intensity-duration thresholds for debris flows in a recovering burned area
linkPost-fire debris flows are often observed during the first rainy season following a wildfire, but it is unclear how long the elevated threat of debris flow persists. We constrained a hydrologic model using field and remotely sensed measurements of soil-infiltration capacity, vegetation cover, runoff, and debris-flow activity.
Temporal changes in rainfall intensity-duration thresholds for debris flows in a recovering burned area
linkPost-fire debris flows are often observed during the first rainy season following a wildfire, but it is unclear how long the elevated threat of debris flow persists. We constrained a hydrologic model using field and remotely sensed measurements of soil-infiltration capacity, vegetation cover, runoff, and debris-flow activity.
Image of the Week - Wildfires Burn in the Shadow of Mount Rushmore
In late March of 2021, just four miles from the edge of South Dakota's second-largest city, two wildfires sparked by human activity burned through a section of the Black Hills.
In late March of 2021, just four miles from the edge of South Dakota's second-largest city, two wildfires sparked by human activity burned through a section of the Black Hills.
Image of the Week: Mudslide Cuts Through Big Sur Burn Scar
A mudslide near the 2020 Dolan Fire's ignition point chopped through a chunk of California's scenic State Highway 1 in late January.
The Dolan Fire began near Big Sur on August 18th, 2020. It scarred nearly 125,000 acres before being fully contained in December.
A mudslide near the 2020 Dolan Fire's ignition point chopped through a chunk of California's scenic State Highway 1 in late January.
The Dolan Fire began near Big Sur on August 18th, 2020. It scarred nearly 125,000 acres before being fully contained in December.
Living with Fire: Prescribed Burning
Southern California's fire ecology is unlike that of anywhere else in the United States. Fire control strategies developed for mountain forests don't have the same results here. So can science help uncover new answers to help Southern California communities manage and live with wildfires?
Southern California's fire ecology is unlike that of anywhere else in the United States. Fire control strategies developed for mountain forests don't have the same results here. So can science help uncover new answers to help Southern California communities manage and live with wildfires?
Science is fundamental to understanding wildfire's causes, consequences, and benefits before, during, and after the flames.
Useful Materials
USGS provides valuable tools, resources, and personnel before, during, and after wildfires. Here are a few helpful pieces of content that are worth sharing to highlight what we do. These different assets can be shared by public information officers to the local communities as handouts, published online or social media as content, or reviewed to help refresh what tools are out there.
Digital Content
Examples of social media tiles or assets that can be shared to better explain aspects of wildland fires.
Useful Links
The USGS produces many papers, products, and research on wildland fire. Here's links to a few of our more important fire-related tools people use to stay informed about conditions before, during, and after a wildfire.
Fire Danger Forecast
Fire Danger Forecast
Fire Danger Forecast
Wildland Fire Trends Tool
Wildland Fire Trends Tool
Wildland Fire Trends Tool
Landfire
Landfire
Landfire
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity
Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessment Clearinghouse
Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessment Clearinghouse
Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessment Clearinghouse
Emergency Assessment of Postfire Debris Flows
Emergency Assessment of Postfire Debris Flows
Emergency Assessment of Postfire Debris Flows
Featured Scientists
There are dozens of USGS scientists that work to better understand conditions, features, or threats related to wildland fires. Here's just a few of our researchers who continually work to help keep people safe and informed.
Post-wildfire water-quality
In response to the catastrophic fires of 2020 in Oregon, the ORWSC teamed up with the Water Mission Area’s Water Availability - Impacts of Extreme Events study to see the water quality effects in severely burned watersheds. In Oregon, four basins were selected to monitor the quality of the water in streams with continuous sensors and discrete water quality sampling.
Wildland Fire Trends Tool
The Wildland Fire Trends Tool (WFTT) is a data visualization and analysis tool that calculates and displays wildfire trends and patterns for the western U.S. based on user-defined regions of interest, time periods, and ecosystem types. Users can use the tool to easily generate a variety of maps, graphs, and tabular data products that are informative for all levels of expertise. The WFTT provides...
Economics of Wildland Fire
In recent decades, wildfires have increased in size and intensity, and the fire season has lengthened. This and other factors have increased wildfire suppression costs and risks to human health and safety. Economists in the Social and Economic Analysis Branch (SEA) at FORT investigate numerous aspects of wildland fire, its impacts, and how to mitigate the risk wildfire poses to people, resources...
Wildland Fire Science in Forests and Deserts
Fuel conditions and fire regimes in western forests and deserts have been altered due to past land management, biological invasions, and recent extreme weather events and climate shifts. These changes have created extreme fire risk to local and regional communities, threatening their economic health related to wildland recreation, forest production, livestock operations, and other uses of public...
Integrated Wildland Fire Science
The size and number of large wildland fires in the western United States have grown dramatically over the past decade, with a contingent rise in damages and suppression costs. This trend will likely continue with further growth of the wildland urban interface (WUI) into fire prone ecosystems, hazardous fuel conditions from decades of fire suppression, and a potentially increasing effect from...
Wildland Fire on Southwestern Landscapes
Wildland fire is a natural phenomenon that helps maintain and propagate healthy forest and rangeland ecosystems. However, it is a growing hazard as communities expand into the wildland urban-interface.
Wildfire Burn Severity Mapping
Have you ever wondered how scientists determine the burn severity of wildfire?
Have you ever wondered how scientists determine the burn severity of wildfire?
Temporal changes in rainfall intensity-duration thresholds for debris flows in a recovering burned area
linkPost-fire debris flows are often observed during the first rainy season following a wildfire, but it is unclear how long the elevated threat of debris flow persists. We constrained a hydrologic model using field and remotely sensed measurements of soil-infiltration capacity, vegetation cover, runoff, and debris-flow activity.
Temporal changes in rainfall intensity-duration thresholds for debris flows in a recovering burned area
linkPost-fire debris flows are often observed during the first rainy season following a wildfire, but it is unclear how long the elevated threat of debris flow persists. We constrained a hydrologic model using field and remotely sensed measurements of soil-infiltration capacity, vegetation cover, runoff, and debris-flow activity.
Image of the Week - Wildfires Burn in the Shadow of Mount Rushmore
In late March of 2021, just four miles from the edge of South Dakota's second-largest city, two wildfires sparked by human activity burned through a section of the Black Hills.
In late March of 2021, just four miles from the edge of South Dakota's second-largest city, two wildfires sparked by human activity burned through a section of the Black Hills.
Image of the Week: Mudslide Cuts Through Big Sur Burn Scar
A mudslide near the 2020 Dolan Fire's ignition point chopped through a chunk of California's scenic State Highway 1 in late January.
The Dolan Fire began near Big Sur on August 18th, 2020. It scarred nearly 125,000 acres before being fully contained in December.
A mudslide near the 2020 Dolan Fire's ignition point chopped through a chunk of California's scenic State Highway 1 in late January.
The Dolan Fire began near Big Sur on August 18th, 2020. It scarred nearly 125,000 acres before being fully contained in December.
Living with Fire: Prescribed Burning
Southern California's fire ecology is unlike that of anywhere else in the United States. Fire control strategies developed for mountain forests don't have the same results here. So can science help uncover new answers to help Southern California communities manage and live with wildfires?
Southern California's fire ecology is unlike that of anywhere else in the United States. Fire control strategies developed for mountain forests don't have the same results here. So can science help uncover new answers to help Southern California communities manage and live with wildfires?