Contemporary fire history metrics for the conterminous United States (1984-2023) (ver. 3.0, April 2024)

Fire history metrics enable rapidly increasing amounts of burned area data to be collapsed into a handful of data layers that can be used efficiently by diverse stakeholders. In this effort, the U.S. Geological Survey Landsat Burned Area product was used to identify burned area across CONUS over a 39-year period (1984-2022). The Landsat BA product was consolidated into a suite of annual BA products, which in-turn were used to calculate a series of contemporary fire history metrics (30 m resolution). Fire history metrics included: (1) fire frequency (FRQ), (2) time since last burn (TSLB) and (3) year of last burn (YLB), (4) longest fire-free interval (LFFI), and (5) average fire interval length (FIL). All metrics were reported using years as the unit. The FRQ, TSLB and YLB metrics are useful across a wide range of fire regimes, and can be used to inform risk of wildfire, answer fire-management questions, or support fire model parameterization. The FIL and LFFI, alternatively, provide data on the distribution of fire events across the period of record and can help guide land management in regions with frequent fire, such as the Midwest and Southeast.