27 documents found, page 1 of 3
Numerical investigation of the Pedrógão Grande pyrocumulonimbus using a fire to...
Couto, Flavio Tiago; Filippi, Jean-Baptiste; Baggio, Roberta; Campos, Cátia; Salgado, RuiUnderstanding the development of fire-generated thunderstorms in mega fire events is important given their high impact on the evolution of the fire fronts, where the fire spread becomes highly unpredictable and difficult to suppress. This study aims to investigate numerically the influence of strong pyro-convective activity on the local atmospheric conditions by means of a numerical simulation based on the coup...
Triggering Pyro-Convection in a High-Resolution Coupled Fire–Atmosphere Simulation
Couto, Flavio Tiago; Filippi, Jean-Baptiste; Baggio, Roberta; Campos, Cátia; Salgado, RuiThis study aimed to assess fire–atmosphere interactions using the fully coupled Meso-NH–ForeFire system. We focused on the Pedrógão Grande wildfire (28,914 ha), which occurred in June 2017 and was one of the deadliest and most damaging fires in Portugal’s history. Two simulations (control and fully coupled fire–atmosphere) were performed for three two-way nested domains configured with horizontal resolutions of...
Exploring the atmospheric conditions increasing fire danger in the Iberian Peni...
Purificação, Carolina; Campos, Cátia; Henkes, Alice; Couto, Flavio TiagoThe fire danger is particularly sensitive to meteorological conditions. The present study discusses the atmospheric conditions during three periods to evaluate how they can increase fire danger. A set of three convection-permitting simulations was configured at 2.5 km resolution using the Meso-NH model. In the first period, the intense surface heating induced by a heatwave favoured the development of the Iberia...
The Role of Atmospheric Circulation in Favouring Forest Fires in the Extreme So...
Purificação, Carolina; Henkes, Alice; Kartsios, Stergios; Couto, Flavio TiagoThe study explores two forest fires in extreme southern Portugal aiming to increase the knowledge of how atmospheric circulation influenced the fire dynamics in each event. The meteorological conditions were simulated by the Meso-NH full-physics non-hydrostatic limited-area research model. The two numerical simulations were performed using a two-way nested domain configuration with horizontal resolutions of 250...
A Case Study of the Possible Meteorological Causes of Unexpected Fire Behavior ...
Couto, Flavio Tiago; Santos, Filippe L. M.; Campos, Cátia; Purificação, Carolina; Andrade, Nuno; López-Vega, Juan M.; Lacroix, MatthieuThis study provides insights into large fires in the Pantanal by analyzing the atmospheric conditions that influenced the rapid fire evolution between 13 and 14 November 2023, when fire fronts spread rapidly, leading to critical situations for firefighters. The observation-based analysis helped us to identify some characteristics of the fire’s evolution and the meteorological conditions in the region. Furthermo...
A Quick Look at the Atmospheric Circulation Leading to Extreme Weather Phenomen...
Couto, Flavio Tiago; Kartsios, Stergios; Lacroix, Matthieu; Andrade, Hugo NunesThe study delves into the primary large-scale atmospheric features contributing to extreme weather events across Europe during early September 2023. The period was examined using a dataset composed by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analysis and satellite imagery. In early September 2023, an omega blocking pattern led to the development of a low-pressure system over the Iberian Pe...
ECMWF Lightning Forecast in Mainland Portugal during Four Fire Seasons
Campos, Cátia; Couto, Flavio Tiago; Santos, Filippe L. M.; Rio, João; Ferreira, Teresa; Salgado, RuiThe study evaluated the ECMWF model ability in forecasting lightning in Portugal during four fire seasons (2019–2022). The evaluation was made based on lightning data from the national lightning detector network, which was aggregated into resolutions of 0.5° and 1° over 3 h periods and analyzed from statistical indices using two contingency tables. The results showed that the model overestimates the lightning o...
Application of atmospheric modelling to understand wildfires environment in Sou...
Purificação, Carolina; Henkes, Alice; Kartsios, Stergios; Couto, Flavio TiagoMeteorological conditions are an important factor contributing to extreme fire environment. Southern Portugal has some susceptible regions to fire with at least 4 mega fires occurring in the last two decades. Aiming to investigate in detail the atmospheric environment of large fires, several numerical simulations were performed using the Meso-NH non-hydrostatic research model. Some simulations were configured u...
Modelling fire-induced meteorological phenomena using the MesoNH/ForeFire model
Campos, Cátia; Couto, Flavio Tiago; Filippi, Jean-Baptiste; Baggio, Roberta; Salgado, RuiCloud-resolving models coupled to fire propagation models is a powerful tool to understand fire-atmosphere environment. Portugal is one of the countries in Southern Europe with most burned area and numerous ignitions. In 2017, Portugal was affected by several mega-fires with burned areas larger than 10 000 hectares. Some of these fires presented the development of convective clouds, namely pyro-cumulus (pyroCu)...
Intense Tornadoes in a Region of Low Convective Available Potential Energy : In...
Lacroix, Matthieu; Couto, Flavio Tiago; Gunnell, YanniWhereas Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) is well known for its role in supercell development in the continental United States, its significance in Europe, a region of low CAPE, is yet to be confirmed. Here we focus on tornado occurrences on the western fringes of the European continent, with data from Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, and The Netherlands. Data compilation from multiple sources produ...