IGNITE: Improved estimation of the ignition danger of forest fires in Austria -meteorological part

The moisture content of combustible soil material in forests is the critical element for estimating the risk of forest fires starting. The Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) currently used in Austria provides unsatisfactory results with regard to the prediction of forest fires. results. Within the scope of this project, the FWI is to be improved for the whole of Austria and the estimation of the risk of forest fires is to be optimized. The meteorological part of the project comprises the validation and, if necessary, the adjustment of the parameters for the determination of the subindex of the Canadian FWI with the help of empirical measurements of litter moisture, measurements of ignition potential and historical forest fire data. Here, the INCA raw data (each for 12 UTC: 2m air temperature, 2m relative humidity, 10min wind mean, and 24h precipitation) provided by ZAMG can be used as the basis for the reparameterization. Also the findings of the German Weather Service (DWD) for deriving a grassland fire index in the winter months as well as the European standards according to EFFIS/JRC for deriving the FWI will be considered