Definition
The burning period is the part of the day when a fire actively spreads or is expected to spread.
Introduction
The burning period is the part of the day when a fire actively spreads or is expected to spread, expressed as a starting and ending time of day (e.g., 1300–1800 h), or as a portion of a 24-h period (e.g., 360 min or 6 h). Typically, the burning period is in the warmest and windiest part of the day from 1000 h to sundown (NWCG 2019a). The burning period is the time of day when the fire is expected to be active, with the potential to exhibit a rate of spread greater than zero and contribute to an expanding burned area.
The burning period is unique to each fire’s geographic location and fuel type (ecosystem or fire regime), varying from day to day, throughout a single season, and from year to year. The behavior of a wildfire may include many phases of growth and spread that includes smoldering, creeping, running, torching, spotting, or crowning fire behavior. Smoldering...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Finney, MA (2006) An overview of FlamMap fire modeling capabilities. In: Andrews PL, Butler BW (comps) Fuels management-how to measure success: conference proceedings. 28–30 March 2006; Portland, OR. Proceedings RMRS-P-41. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collin, pp 213–220
Noonan-Wright EK, Opperman TS, Finney MA, Zimmerman GT, Seli RC, Elenz LM, Calkin DE, Fiedler JR (2011) Developing the US wildland fire decision support system. J Comb 2011:168473, 14 pages. https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/168473
NWCG (2018) Incident response pocket guide, PMS-461. National Wildfire Coordinating Group. Retrieved July 23, 2019 from https://www.nwcg.gov/publications/461
NWCG (2019a) “NWCG glossary of wildland fire.” National Wildfire Coordinating Group. Retrieved July 23, 2019 from https://www.nwcg.gov/glossary/a-z
NWCG (2019b) Fire behavior field reference guide, PMS-437. National Wildfire Coordinating Group. Retrieved July 1, 2019 from https://www.nwcg.gov/publications/pms437/search-437#TOC-Burn-Period
Pyne SJ, Andrews PL, Laven RD (1996) Introduction to wildland fire, 2nd edn. Wiley, New York, 769 p
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply
About this entry
Cite this entry
Opperman, T. (2020). Burning Period. In: Manzello, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_216-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_216-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering