Lightning-induced fire regime in Portugal based on satellite-derived and in situ data

• Published in: Agricultural and forest meteorology Vol. 355; p. 110108
• Main Authors: Menezes, Lucas S., Russo, Ana, Libonati, Renata, Trigo, Ricardo M., Pereira, José M.C., Benali, Akli, Ramos, Alexandre M., Gouveia, Célia M., Morales Rodriguez, Carlos A., Deus, Ricardo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 15-08-2024
• Subjects: Climatology; Fire; Lightning; Lightning-fire; Portugal; Remote sensing; Climatology; Lightning-fire; Portugal; Lightning; Remote sensing; Fire
• ISSN: 0168-1923; 1873-2240
• DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2024.110108

•Compared to the latest report, the fraction of fires ignited by lighting was smaller.•Ignitions by lightning were more frequent amongst larger fire occurrences.•During the compound events of 2003 and 2017, lightning was a relevant fire cause.•Remote sensing data was able to reproduce the seasonality of lightning-ignited fires.
Fire databases typically contain information regarding the location, timing, and duration of fire occurrences, as well as the cause (natural or human-induced). These databases allow for the analysis and understanding of the circumstances surrounding the ignition and propagation of wildfires, being highly relevant when addressing fire suppression and management plans, or for improvement of prevention policies. In Portugal, a large number of fires in the official database have unknown causes, which limits the understanding about the relevance of each fire cause, in particular the role of lightning on the ignition of fires over the country. The objective of this paper is twofold: first, we investigated the spatial-temporal variability of lightning-induced fires from 2003 to 2020. Then, we evaluate the feasibility of using remote sensing data as a surrogate for identifying fire causes, through validation with the fire database. Our results revealed that lightning-ignited fires represent an even smaller fraction of all fire events than mentioned in the latest official report about fire causes in the country, accounting for only 1 % of the fire occurrences and 4.6 % of the total burned area in the 18-year period under analysis. The months of June to September comprise 91 % of all lightning fires, which occur more frequently in the northern, remote regions of the country and at relatively high altitudes. Moreover, lightning ignitions originate fires larger than the global average and contributed significantly to the total area burned during the extreme 2003 and 2017 fire seasons. Its importance in these extreme years suggests that lightning can trigger large fires when in conjunction with compound events such as droughts and heatwaves. When compared with in-situ databases, the application of remote sensing data reproduced the seasonality of lightning-ignited fires, but failed to account for the contribution of smaller fires, which represent the majority of occurrences in the Portuguese fire database. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the improved assessment of fire risks, causes, and impacts in Portugal.