Research Database
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Projections of Lightning-Ignited Wildfire Risk in the Western United States
Year: 2025
Cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning is a major source of summer wildfire ignition in the western United States (WUS). However, future projections of lightning are uncertain since lightning is not directly simulated by most global climate models. To address this issue, we use convolutional neural network (CNN)-based parameterizations of daily June-September CG lightning. CNN parameterizations of daily CG lightning occurrence at each grid cell use fields of three thermodynamic variables—ratio of surface Moist Static Energy (MSE) to 500 hPa saturation MSE, 700–500 hPa lapse rate, and 500…
Publication Type: Journal Article
“Evergreen and Charcoal Black”: The Institutional and Organizational Development of the Washington Department of Natural Resources in the Era of Megafires
Year: 2024
In Washington State in the US, the story of the Washington Department of Natural Resources’ (WA DNR) work to manage increased wildfire threat and the resulting internal and external shifts in agency policy and practices is the subject of this analysis. A narrative policy framework is a lens adopted to examine how the elected leadership of the agency sought to institute adaptive change and increase available resources to implement such change through the initiation and support of a key piece of legislation and through strategic shifts in its land management emphasis. These changes were…
Publication Type: Journal Article