Climatology and trend analysis (1987–2016) of fire weather in the <scp>Euro‐Mediterranean</scp>
Theodore M. Giannaros, Vassiliki Kotroni, Konstantinos Lagouvardos
Abstract
Abstract High‐resolution regional climate simulations were conducted for the past 30 years (1987–2016), focusing on the Euro‐Mediterranean region. The numerical simulations were used for computing the Canadian Fire Weather Index, for deriving the climatology of fire weather in the study area and investigating the presence of long‐term trends, with particular emphasis on extremes during the May to September period. Results suggest that the Euro‐Mediterranean fire weather follows a zonal pattern, characterized by adverse conditions occurring most frequently in the southern parts. Air temperature and relative humidity are the key drivers of fire weather in the study area, with precipitation and wind exerting less influence. Based on the conducted spatial trend analysis, extreme fire weather conditions have become more prevalent in the Iberian Peninsula and eastern Balkans, whereas declining trends occur in the Southeast Mediterranean basin. For both cases, the trends in fire weather extremes appear to coincide with trends in the input meteorological variables. Overall, the results of this study provide a new insight on the recent climatology and trends of fire weather in the Euro‐Mediterranean. Our dataset is publicly available on the Zenodo platform (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3713531 ).