UBC ATSC 413 - Forest-fire Weather & Climate

Thursday Schedule - Fires

(Follow this schedule to access fire cases, online lectures, homeworks, and quizzes. In this hybrid course, material is presented both in person and online.)

Week 10 Thursday:      Wildfire Case: Sparks Lake, British Columbia, June - July 2021.

There are two main goals for this hour:

  1. Interpret the grading rubric for capstone presentations, so that your group can create a successful presentation and report.  See an example of how the required items can be addressed via the presentation by Bennett.  Practice using the grading rubric with Bennett's presentation.
  2. Explain the factors affecting the Sparks Lake fire.

Topic Learning Goals. By the end of this section, for the Sparks Lake fire, you will be able to explain... Lecture
A. Intro Overview of     What?  Where?  When?  Why?  Who? A full 50 minute presentation about the Sparks Lake fire, by Jalena Bennett: as
• a downloadable mp4 video (1.5 GB) with associated report;
    or    
• viewable via online streaming via YouTube.
B. Antecedent / Precursor Conditions.

Climate, anomalies, forest & fuel type, moisture-code values, etc. in the months and week before the fire.

 (see link above)
C. Ignition Source & Associated Weather Synoptic and mesoscale weather on the day of ignition. (see link above)
D. Fire Weather & Behavior Co-evolution of the weather and the fire. Associated dynamics, thermodynamics, synoptics, and mesoscale weather. (see link above)
E. Special Meteorological Aspects ... if any. Could include pyrocb, diablo winds, smoke dispersion, etc. (see link above)
Weather Briefing Short (10 minute) weather briefing on Vancouver weather by a student team. Utilize the weather-briefing "cookbook" to select which images and movies to show. Give a well structured weather briefing using appropriate maps and graphs, and finishing within the alotted time. Gain experience in public speaking and working as a team. Strengthen your understanding of atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics. Strengthen your ability to form a 3-D picture of the weather in your mind. Utilize appropriate terminology and jargon.
F. Impacts ... of the fire (and smoke where relevant) on people, industry, environment, etc. (see link above)
G. Conclusions & Recommendations Summary. Insights and/or lessons learned, as might be applicable to future fires. (see link above)