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Analysis of pyrometeorological conditions using observational data for the island of Crete

Choulaki Stefania

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Summary

This thesis studies pyro-meteorological conditions using observational data from the island of Crete during the fire season: June-October (until 2022). Its purpose is to evaluate and compare the current method of fire risk assessment carried out by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection with the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System FWI in the study area, and to show whether the latter is a more effective and accurate method. Forest fires are fires that take on large dimensions and usually cause disasters in the ecosystem and nature [Triantafyllidis Dictionary]. Pyro-meteorological conditions are the meteorological conditions that affect the behavior of a wildfire, from its outbreak, and until it is put out. The daily meteorological variables used in this dissertation are wind, humidity, temperature, and rainfall. More specifically: the average daily wind speed (km/h), the minimum relative humidity (%), the average daily temperature (oC) and the previous day rainfall in millimeters. These are the parameters obtained from the weather stations from the app ‘Meteo Search’ that were examined for the years of interest 2011-2022 and specifically 2020-2022, and then used to calculate the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index using the programming language MatLab. Then, by dividing firstly the entire island and then its geographical districts into North, South and mountainous regions, diagrams of the FWI results as well as spatial analysis (2020-2022) were made. After processing the results, the main conclusions that were reached are that the FWI index has a stricter risk distribution in relation to the one of Civil Protection, and that the division into North, South and based on altitude is more effective compared to the division by geographical district that is made until today unless local forecasts are requested by the operational officer of the Fire Brigade. It is therefore proposed to implement the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System into the existing method of fire prediction of Greece and the possibility of extending the fire season.

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