| BehavePlus fire modeling system |
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This paper is an overview of BehavePlus. It includes a description of the relationship of BehavePlus to other fire behavior systems and a table of the mathematical models that form the basis of the system.
Andrews, P. L. (2007) BehavePlus fire modeling system: Past, present, and future. In ‘Proceedings of 7th Symposium on Fire and Forest Meteorological Society’. 23-25 October 2007, Bar Harbor, Maine. http://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/126669.pdf (647 KB; 13 pages) [ PDF ]
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The User's Guide describes operation of the BehavePlus program. It does not describe specific modeling capabilities of the system. The User's Guide is packaged with the program and is accessible through the Help button.
Andrews, P. L., C. D. Bevins, and R. C. Seli. (2008) BehavePlus fire modeling system, version 4.0: User's Guide. General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-106WWW Revised. Ogden, UT: Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Rocky Mountain Research Station. (5,872 KB; 116 pages) [ PDF ]
This document is also available from
the RMRS Publications website: http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr106.html, and
TreeSearch: http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/5488.
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The Variables paper is a reference document that describes the 189 variables in BehavePlus, with information on input and
output relationships. It is packaged with the program and is accessible through the Help button.
Andrews, P. L. (2009) BehavePlus fire modeling system, version 5.0: Variables. General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-213WWW Revised. Fort Collins, CO: Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Rocky Mountain Research Station. (2,862 KB; 111 pages) [ PDF ]
This document is also available from
the RMRS Publications website: http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr213.html, and
TreeSearch: http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/30565.
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This poster is an overview of BehavePlus. It includes a brief description of each module.
Andrews, P. L., C.D. Bevins, and R.C. Seli (2007) BehavePlus fire modeling system, version 4.0 overview. In ‘2nd Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference: The Fire Environment—Innovations, Management, and Policy’. 26-30 March 2007, Destin, Florida. (176 KB) [ PDF, reduced to 8.5" x 11" ]
A larger version can be downloaded for Microsoft PowerPoint. (26.5 MB) [ PPT ] |
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This poster is an overview of application of BehavePlus to prescribed fire planning.
Andrews, P. L. and T.M. Kelley (2007) Use of the BehavePlus fire modeling system for prescribed fire planning. In ‘2nd Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference: The Fire Environment—Innovations, Management, and Policy’. 26-30 March 2007, Destin, Florida. (174 KB) [ PDF, reduced to 8.5" x 11" ]
A larger version can be downloaded for Microsoft PowerPoint. (9.86 MB) [ PPT ]
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| Fire behavior prediction |
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The basics of fire behavior prediction are described in this publication.
Rothermel, R. C. (1983) How to predict the spread and intensity of forest and range fires. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-143. Ogden, UT. (7,174 KB; 161 pages) [ PRI ]
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Nomograms were developed by Albini (1976). They were reformatted in Rothermelt (1983) using midflame rather than 20-ft wind and with an added heat per unit area axis label. A correction was made to the fuel model 7 nomogram in 1991.
NWCG (1992) Fire Behavior Nomograms. PMS 436-3, NFES 2220. (69,241 KB; 28 pages) [ PRI ]
The full document may take a long time to load. Individual fuel model nomograms may be downloaded below.
A conversion to the OCR form is not meaningful for this document.
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Individual Fuel Model Nomograms |
| Grass Group |
Brush Group |
Timber Group |
Logging Slash Group |
| 1 [ PRI ] |
4 [ PRI ] |
8 [ PRI ] |
11 [ PRI ] |
| 2 [ PRI ] |
5 [ PRI ] |
9 [ PRI ] |
12 [ PRI ] |
| 3 [ PRI ] |
6 [ PRI ] |
10 [ PRI ] |
13 [ PRI ] |
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7 [ PRI ] |
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A new form of nomographs was developed for the original 13 and the new 40 standard fire behavior fuel models.
Scott, J. H. (2007) Nomographs for estimating surface fire behavior characterisitcs. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-192. Fort Collins, CO. (16,342 KB; 119 pages) [ PDF ]
This document is also available from
the RMRS Publications website: http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr192.html, and
TreeSearch: http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/27177.
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The surface fire spread model is for steady-state spread. This paper describes considerations when the ignition pattern is used to affect fire behavior.
Rothermel, R. C. (1984) Fire behavior consideration of aerial ignition. In Workshop: Prescribed Fire by Aerial Ignition. Missoula, MT (Intermountain Fire Council) (905 KB; 16 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Rothermel, R. C. and G. C. Rinehart (1983) Field procedures for verification and adjustment of fire behavior predictions. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-142. Ogden, UT. (993 KB; 25 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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 | Wells, G. (2008) The Rothermel Fire-Spread Model: Still Running Like a Champ. JFSP Fire Science Digest 2: 1-12. (1,506 KB; 12 pages) [ PDF ]
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 | Andrews, P. A., M. Finney, and M. Fischetti. (2007) Predicting Wildfires. Scientific American July: 46-55. (782 KB; 8 pages) [ PDF ]
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| The old BEHAVE fire behavior prediction and fuel modeling system |
| The BURN subsystem of BEHAVE consisted of the FIRE1 and FIRE2 programs, the fire behavior prediction part of BEHAVE. Discussion of the models in these papers is still valid for BehavePlus. |
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Andrews, P. L. (1986) BEHAVE: fire behavior prediction and fuel modeling system - BURN subsystem, part 1. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-194. Ogden, UT. (3,678 KB; 133 pages) [ PRI] [ OCR ]
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Andrews, P. L. and C. H. Chase. (1989) BEHAVE: fire behavior prediction and fuel modeling system - BURN subsystem, part 2. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-260. Ogden, UT. (14,596 KB; 96 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Andrews, P. L. and L. S. Bradshaw. (1990) RXWINDOW: Defining windows of acceptable burning conditions based on desired fire behavior. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-273. Ogden, UT. (2,479 KB; 54 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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The FUEL subsystem of BEHAVE consisted of the NEWMDL and TSTMDL programs, which were used to develop custom fuel models for surface fire. The information in these papers is still valid for BehavePlus. |
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Burgan, R. E. and R. C. Rothermel. (1984) BEHAVE: fire behavior prediction and fuel modeling system - FUEL subsystem. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-167. Ogden, UT. (5,900 KB; 110 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Burgan, R. E. (1987) Concepts and interpreted examples in advanced fuel modeling. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-238. Ogden, UT. (1,802 KB; 44 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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| Surface fire |
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 | Rothermel's 1972 surface fire spread model is the foundation of BehavePlus and many other systems used in the U.S.
Rothermel, R. C. (1972) A mathematical model for predicting fire spread in wildland fuels. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-115, Ogden, UT. (1,925 KB; 50 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Andrews, P. L., and R. C. Rothermel. (1982) Charts for interpreting wildland fire behavior characteristics. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-131. Ogden, UT. (472 KB; 24 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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 | Roussopoulos, P. J. (1974) Fire intensity levels, initial summary. National Fuel Management Workshop. (142 KB; 3 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Rothermel, R. C. and J. E. Deeming. (1980) Measuring and interpreting fire behavior for correlation with fire effects. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-93. Ogden, UT. (325 KB; 3 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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| Crown fire |
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Rothermel. R. C. (1991) Predicting behavior and size of crown fires in the Northern Rocky Mountains. U.S. Forest Service Research Paper INT-438. Ogden, UT. (7,723 KB; 46 pages) [ PDF ]
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| Fuel |
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The 13 standard fire behavior fuel models are described.
Anderson, H. E. (1982) Aids to determining fuel models for estimating fire behavior. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-122. Ogden, UT. (1,856 KB; 28 pages) [ PDF ]
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The 40 additional standard fire behavior fuel models are described.
Scott, J. H.; Burgan, R. E. (2005) Standard fire behavior fuel models: a comprehensive set for use with Rothermel's surface fire spread model. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-153. Ogden, UT. (1,359 KB; 80 pages) [ PDF ]
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A special case 'fuel model' was developed for Palmetto-Gallberry. It is an option in BehavePlus.
Hough, W.A. and F.A. Albini. (1978) Predicting fire behavior in palmetto-gallberry fuel complexes. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report SE-174. Asheville, NC. (6,248 KB; 46 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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 | A special case 'fuel model' was developed for western aspen. The publication includes photographs and fire modeling methods.
Brown, J. K. and D. G. Simmerman. (1986) Appraising fuels and flammability in western aspen: a prescribed fire guide. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-205. Ogden, UT. (6,770 KB; 51 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Five custom chaparral fuel models are available with BehavePlus in the SoCalifornia folder.
Weise, D. (1997) Fuel modeling efforts for chaparral. Resource Management: The Fire Element Spr/Sum: 4-5. (184 KB; 2 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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BehavePlus offers three methods for modeling spread through two fuel models. The 'area weighted' method was used in the old BEHAVE system. The '2-dimensional expected spread' is the recommended method. |
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Finney, M. (2003) Calculation of fire spread rates across random landscapes. International Journal of Wildland Fire 12: 167-174. (2,061 KB; 10 pages) [ PDF ]
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This paper describes the method of modeling spread through two fuel models called 'harmonic mean'.
Fujioka, F. M. (1985) Estimating wildland fire rate of spread in a spatially non-uniform environment. Forest Science 31: 21-29. (1,032 KB; 5 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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 | Fahnestock, G. R. (1970) Two keys for appraising forest fire fuels. U.S. Forest Service Research Paper PNW-99. Portland, OR. (2,208 KB; 26 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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| Fuel moisture |
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 | Burgan, R. E. (1979) Estimating live fuel moisture for the 1978 National Fire Danger Rating System. U.S. Forest Service Research Paper INT-226. Ogden, UT. (784 KB; 16 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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| Fire shape and growth |
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Anderson developed a double ellipse method for estimating fire shape. BehavePlus uses a simple ellipse.
Anderson, H. E. (1983) Predicting wind-driven wild land fire size and shape. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-305. Ogden, UT. (7,278 KB; 30 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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 | Rothermel, R.C., R.A. Hartford, and C.H. Chase (1994) Fire growth maps for the 1988 Greater Yellowstone Area fires. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-304. Ogden, UT. (3,269 KB; 64 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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| Midflame wind speed |
| Adjustment of 20-foot wind speed to midflame wind speed. |
 | Baughman, R. G. and F. A. Albini. (1980) Estimating midflame windspeeds. In Sixth Conference on Fire and Forest Meteorology, Seattle, WA (Society of American Foresters) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Albini, F. A. and Baughman, R. G. (1979) Estimating windspeeds for predicting wildland fire behavior. U.S. Forest Service Research Paper INT-221. Ogden, UT. (1,179 KB; 12 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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| Spotting distance |
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Albini, F. A. (1979) Spot fire distance from burning trees – a predictive model. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-56. Ogden, UT. (2,850KB; 73 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Albini, F. A. (1983) Potential spotting distance from wind-driven surface fires. U.S. Forest Service Research Paper INT-309. Ogden, UT. (979 KB; 27 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Chase, C. H. (1984) Spotting distance from wind-driven surface fires – extensions of equations for pocket calculators. U.S. Forest Service Research Note INT-346. Ogden, UT. (654 KB; 21 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Albini, F. A. (1981) Spot fire distance from isolated sources – extensions of a predictive model. U.S. Forest Service Research Note INT-309. Ogden, UT. (185 KB; 11 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Chase, C. H. (1981) Spot fire distance equations for pocket calculators. U.S. Forest Service Research Note INT-310. Ogden, UT. (21 pages)
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| Fire containment |
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 | Used in the CONTAIN module of BehavePlus.
Fried, J. S. and B. D. Fried. (1996) Simulating wildfire containment with realistic tactics. Forest Science 42 (3): 267-281. (313 KB; 15 pages) [ PDF ]
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Used in the CONTAIN module of the old BEHAVE system.
Albini, F. A., G. N. Korovin, and E. H. Gorovaya (1978) Mathematical analysis of forest fire suppression. U.S. Forest Service Research Paper INT-207. Ogden, UT. (961 KB; 26 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Albini, F. A. and C. H. Chase (1980) Fire containment equations for pocket calculators. U.S. Forest Service Research Note INT-268. Ogden, UT. (844 KB; 18 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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| Safety zones |
| Safety zone size is in the SAFETY module of BehavePlus. |
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Butler, B. W. and J. D. Cohen. (1998a) Firefighter safety zones: how big is big enough? Fire Management Notes 58(1): 13-16. (71 KB; 4 pages) [ PDF ]
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Butler, B. W. and J. D. Cohen. (1998b) Firefighter safety zones: a theoretical model based on radiative heating. International Journal of Wildland Fire 8: 73-77. (364 KB; 5 pages) [ PDF ]
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Butler, B. W. and J. D. Cohen (1996) An Analytical Evaluation of Firefighter Safety Zones. In ‘Proceedings 13th Conference on Fire and Forest Meteorological Society’. 27-31 October 1996, Lorne, Australia. (1,537 KB; 7 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Butler, B.; Forthofer, J. 2002. Get into the zone. Wildfire September/October: 16-22. (7,808 KB; 6 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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| Probability of ignition |
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Probability of ignition from lightning.
Latham, D. J. and J. A. Schlieter. (1989) Ignition probablities of wildland fuels based on simulated lightning discharges. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-411, Ogden, UT. (279 KB; 20 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Probability of ignition from firebrands.
Schroeder, M.J. (1969) Ignition probablity. U.S. Forest Service Office Report 2106-1, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Fort Collins, CO (661 KB; 27 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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| Spatial fire behavior systems |
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FlamMap does BehavePlus-type calculations for every pixel on the landscape. FlamMap also includes modeling for optimum fuel tremtment location.
Finney, M. A. (2006) An overview of FlamMap fire modeling capabilities. U.S. Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-41, Ogden, UT. (888 KB; 8 pages) [ PDF ]
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FARSITE models fire growth across the landscape.
Finney, M. A. (1998, Revised 2004) FARSITE: fire area simulator - model development and evaluation. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report RMRS-RP-4Rev. Ogden, UT. (1,626 KB; 52 pages) [ PDF ]
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| Past fire behavior modeling systems |
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The FIREMOD program included Rothermel's spread model and other models.
Albini, F. A. (1976) Computer-based models of wildland fire behavior: a user's manual. U.S. Forest Service. Ogden, UT. (1,611 KB; 71 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Original publication of the nomograms.
Albini, F. A. (1976) Estimating wildfire behavior and effects. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-30. Ogden, UT. (4,964 KB; 97 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Burgan, R. E. (1979) Fire danger / fire behavior computations with the Texas Instruments TI-59 calculator: user's manual. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-61. Ogden, UT. (1,150 KB; 25 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Burgan, R. E. and R. A. Susott. (1986) HP-71 replaces TI-59 for fire calculations in the field. Fire Management Notes 47(2): 11-13. [ PDF ]
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Susott, R. and R. Burgan. (1986) Fire behavior computations with the Hewlett-Packard HP71B calculator. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-202. Ogden, UT. (2,370 KB; 80 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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| Fire weather |
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Schroeder, M. J. and C. C. Buck. (1979) Fire Weather. U.S. Forest Service Agriculture Handbook 360, PMS 425-1, Washington, DC. (229 pages)
- Complete "Fire Weather" book. [ PDF ] (16,576 KB; pp. I-III and 1-229; Warning: This document may take a long time to load.)
- Front Matter & Chapter 1 - Basic Principles [ PDF ] (pp. I-III, 1-18)
- Chapter 2 - Temperature [ PDF ] (pp. 19-32)
- Chapter 3 - Atmospheric Moisture [ PDF ] (pp. 33-48)
- Chapter 4 - Atmospheric Stability [ PDF ] (pp. 49-67)
- Chapter 5 - General Circulation [ PDF ] (pp. 68-84)
- Chapter 6 - General Winds [ PDF ] (pp. 85-106)
- Chapter 7 - Convective Winds [ PDF ] (pp. 107-126)
- Chapter 8 - Air Masses and Fronts [ PDF ] (pp. 127-143)
- Chapter 9 - Clouds and Precipitation [ PDF ] (pp. 144-165)
- Chapter 10 - Thunderstorms [ PDF ] (pp. 166-179)
- Chapter 11 - Weather and Fuel Moisture [ PDF ] (pp. 180-195)
- Chapter 12 - Fire Climate Regions [ PDF ] (pp. 196-220)
- Index [ PDF ] (pp. 221-229)
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| Fire fundamentals, historical |
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Barrows, J.S. (1951) Fire behavior in Northern Rocky Mountain Forests. Station Paper 29. U.S. Forest Service Northern Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. Missoula, MT. (9,119 KB; 134 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Anonymous. (no date) Hot facts of life on the fire line. U.S. Forest Service Northern Region. Missoula, MT. (426 KB; 16 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
We suspect this document was developed during the World War II era because of the following statement, found on page 1: "The fellow who used to fight fires has gone to war.... IT'S UP TO YOU. IT'S YOUR WAR JOB. More specifically, the document was most likely written between 1942 and 1945, since the first smokejumper fire jumps were made in 1940 and cuffless "victory" trousers were mandated by the War Production Board, which was established in 1942. (Goodwin, 1994. No Ordinary Time. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II). The War Production Board was disbanded in 1945, shortly after the war ended (Wikipedia)."
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| The following 13 publications are part of a group designed to describe important concepts of fire behavior and the application of these concepts to wildland fire problems. The level of difficulty is signaled by the color of the cover: the blue cover group is generally elementary and the yellow cover group is generally intermediate. |
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Countryman, C. M. (1971) This humidity business: what it is all about and its use in fire control (blue cover). U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. Berkeley, CA. (713 KB; 18 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Countryman, C. M. (1971) Fire whirls...why, when, and where (blue cover). U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. Berkeley, CA. (1,546 KB; 14 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Countryman, C. M. (1971) Carbon monoxide: a firefighting hazard (yellow cover). U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. Berkeley, CA. (812 KB; 8 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Countryman, C. M. (1972) The fire environment concept (blue cover). U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. Berkeley, CA. (1,291 KB; 15 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Countryman, C. M. (1975-1976) Heat — its role in wildland fire (blue cover). U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. Berkeley, CA.
- Part 1 — The nature of heat (1975) (377 KB; 10 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
- Part 2 — Heat conduction (1976) (349 KB; 9 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
- Part 3 — Heat conduction and wildland fire (1976) (665 KB; 14 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
- Part 4 — Radiation (1976) (455 KB; 10 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
- Part 5 — Radiation and wildland fire (1976) (606 KB; 14 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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Countryman, C. M. (1977-1978) Heat and wildland fire (yellow cover). U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. Berkeley, CA.
- Part 1 — The nature of heat (1977) (343 KB; 13 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
- Part 2 — Heat conduction (1977) (226 KB; 10 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
- Part 3 — Heat conduction and wildland fire (1977) (646 KB; 17 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
- Part 4 — Radiation (1978) (470 KB; 10 pages) [ PRI ] [ OCR ]
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BehavePlus 
