Climate change impact on wildfires in the Canary Islands
- University of La Laguna, Sciences, La Laguna, Spain (jcarrill@ull.edu.es)
The frequency and intensity of wildfires will be aggravated by climate change. Small islands are more vulnerable to these events due to their greater number of endemic species, little territory, and the isolation of their firefighting systems, among others. Climate projections of Fire Weather Index (FWI) have been accomplished using as boundary conditions the results provided by the CMIP5 initiative, using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, with a spatial resolution of 3x3km, until the end of the century, and two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), 4.5 and 8.5. The length of the fire season is expected to increase up to 74 days per year and the area with high risk could increase by 43%. In addition, FWI is projected to increase with altitude, mainly due to increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation, which are more pronounced at higher elevations.
How to cite: Carrillo, J., Pérez, J. C., Expósito, F. J., Díaz, J. P., and González, A.: Climate change impact on wildfires in the Canary Islands, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5221, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5221, 2022.
