Using Teleconnections to Predict Wildfires in Mississippi

Abstract

Previous wildfire research in the United States has been focused primarily on the western states. Much of this research has discovered relationships between wildfire variability and atmospheric teleconnections. Thus far, few published projects have addressed the effects of various teleconnections on wildfire in the southeastern United States. Index values for the El Niño?Southern Oscillation (ENSO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO), and Pacific?North American (PNA) pattern are all tested for relationships with fire variables in the state of Mississippi. Each of the indices displays significant correlations with wildfire occurrence and/or size in Mississippi. The findings of this research suggest that it might be feasible to create predictive fire-risk models for the southeastern United States based on the combination of these teleconnection indices.