Miller et al. (2025) Compounding preconditions of wildfires vary in time and space within Europe

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich)
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-15
• Authors: Julia Miller, Danielle Touma, Manuela Brunner
• DOI: 10.3929/ethz-c-000790619

Research Groups

Not specified in the provided text.

Short Summary

This study analyzes hydro-meteorological and land-surface drivers of wildfires across eight European climate regions from 2001 to 2020, revealing that drought conditions and vapor pressure deficit are the dominant drivers, with their influence varying by season and region.

Objective

• To analyze the hydro-meteorological and land-surface drivers of wildfires across eight European climate regions and their mountain ranges from 2001 to 2020.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Eight European climate regions and their mountain ranges.
• Temporal Scale: 2001 to 2020 (20 years); seasonal and sub-monthly timescales for driver dynamics.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not specified in the provided text.
• Data sources: Not explicitly specified, but involves hydro-meteorological and land-surface data.

Main Results

• Drought conditions and vapor pressure deficit are the dominant drivers of wildfire activity.
• These drivers exhibit seasonal and regional variations in their influence on wildfires.
• In Southern and Central European regions, persistent warm and dry conditions in preceding seasons favor summer wildfires.
• Fall wildfires in Southern and Central Europe are influenced by fuel build-up in spring that subsequently loses moisture during dry and hot summer weather.
• In Northern Europe, these wildfire dynamics occur on sub-monthly timescales.
• The study illustrates the critical role of compounding wildfire drivers.

Contributions

• Provides a comprehensive analysis of wildfire drivers across diverse European climate regions and mountain ranges over a two-decade period.
• Identifies the primary hydro-meteorological and land-surface drivers (drought, vapor pressure deficit) and quantifies their spatiotemporal variability.
• Highlights the critical role of compounding drivers, informing the development of targeted wildfire mitigation strategies, particularly in the context of climate change.

Funding

Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Miller2025Compounding,
  author = {Miller, Julia and Touma, Danielle and Brunner, Manuela},
  title = {Compounding preconditions of wildfires vary in time and space within Europe},
  journal = {Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich)},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.3929/ethz-c-000790619},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-c-000790619}
}