UBC ATSC 413 - Forest-fire Weather and Climate

UBC ATSC 413 - Forest-fire Weather & Climate

Welcome to this course

To set the stage, here is a wonderful story by the US NOAA agency on "Fighting fire with Forecasts".

Welcome

ATSC 413 is a relatively new course -- first offered Fall 2023. It is designed for students who already know meteorological fundamentals (see the prerequisites below). In addition to focusing on forest-fire weather, it also covers mid-latitude weather forecasting on the large (synoptic) and medium (mesoscale) scales.

The forecast applications and meteorological theory are taught in the context of modern numerical weather prediction (NWP). Longer-term variations in wildfires are related to changes in land practices, including Indigenous practices and government fire-suppression policies, as modulated by global climate change and increasing population.

After a brief introduction about fire-weather indices, most of the remainder of the course is centered around 6 to 8 case-study fires. Each case study allows us to introduce new synoptic and mesoscale weather concepts to better explain the fire evolution. We also briefly cover wildfire smoke production and dispersion, and climate-change impacts. Although not required for this course, I encourage you to view this feature-length video on the Paradise California fire, which was one of our previous fire cases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3OX1PR2SCM .

Although this is an in-person course (with 2 hours of lecture and 2 hours of lab each week), most of the content is on this website. We also take advantage of a rich tapestry of online images, videos, webinars, training modules, and reports. Please see the "Getting Started" link on the home page. [An exception to in-person teaching is made when the instructor has a cold or flu. For that case, a Zoom link will be provided for a few lecture days, to enable a remote online lecture at the normally scheduled class time.]

Time and Place (2024)

TIME: There are 3 aspects to the course schedule: lecture, lab, & tutorial.
• The lectures and labs are so intertwined that we teach them together during Tuesdays and Thursdays: 9:00 am - 10:50 am.
• The tutorials are optional, and take place in the half-hour before the official start of class. Namely, tutorials are 8:30 - 9:00 am for many Tuesdays and Thursdays. Updates on the topics for each tutorial will be provided via the Piazza app, which all students will have access to after the term starts.

PLACE: Classroom/Lab: room 204 Scarfe Bldg. https://learningspaces.ubc.ca/classrooms/scrf-204

Date of First Class meeting: Thursday 5 September 2024 starting at 9 AM Pacific Time, in the room listed above.

UBC Calendar Listing

ATSC 413 (3 credits) Forest-fire Weather and Climate
Synoptic and mesoscale meteorology and weather forecasting applied to wildfires. Effect of weather on fire behaviour, danger, smoke, climate and sustainability at the urban-forest interface. [2-2-0]
Prerequisite: One of: ATSC 201, GEOS 200

"Snow Call" (Responding to Extreme Environmental Conditions)

Weather Contingency Plan for Class Sessions, Quizzes, and Exams: In-person, on campus activities may need to be cancelled due to issues such as weather conditions (e.g., snow) or dense forest-fire smoke. The most up-to-date information about cancellations will be posted on ubc.ca. Please check ubc.ca often during times when an extreme weather event could disrupt our course activities. If in-person classes or exams are cancelled, the following contingency plans will take effect. The uncertainty that comes with extreme weather events can be stressful. Rest assured we will be flexible with assignment deadlines and communicate with you as early as we can. We will try to communicate with you about weather-related class cancellations through Canvas and Piazza announcements. Here is what you can expect in the event an in-person class session, quiz, or exam is cancelled:

In case in-person classes are cancelled due to weather: If in-person activities are cancelled due to weather or other environmental conditions, class will be held online at the normally scheduled times/dates. The Zoom link will be posted on Canvas. For those unable to participate in an online class on short notice, I will provide a lecture recording that is posted to Canvas.

For any Labwork, Homework, or other Activity that would have been due on the date of the cancelled in-person class: The activity will be posted on Canvas for you to complete and submit via Canvas by the normal deadline.

If weather impacts the quiz/midterm that cannot transition to online, then, it will be dropped and the weight will be redistributed to other course components as follows: If the midterm exam is dropped, then the midterm weight will be added to the weight for the individual final exam. If quizzes or homework or lab assignments are dropped, the weights for all the remaining homework and labs will be slightly increased so that the total weight relative to the overall course remains the same as indicated in the Evaluation link on the home page.

If weather impacts a quiz/midterm, it will be held online. Instructions for how to take the exam online will be posted on Canvas. If you are unable to participate in the online midterm, please contact me. If you have time accommodations for the midterm, we will provide those accommodations. For any other accommodations, please reach out to the CFA as soon as possible to work out a plan exam.coordinator@ubc.ca. If you are registered to write exams at the Centre for Accessibility, I encourage you to reach out to your CfA advisor well in advance to discuss the weather contingency plan for this course.

Cheers, Dr. Roland Stull and Dr. Doug McCollor