Fire focus and performance of wildfire danger indices from 2017 to 2021 in Jataí – Goiás

Abstract

The good performance of a wildfire danger indices can be useful for its prevention. The objectives of this work were to evaluate the variation in the number of fire focus observed in Jataí - Goiás between the years 2017 and 2021, relate them to meteorological parameters and evaluate the performance of wildfire danger indices (Angstron, Nesterov, Telitsyn, Fórmula de Monte Alegre and Fórmula de Monte Alegre Changed). Correlation was performed between the days with fire danger and the number of fire focus and the number of days with fire focus. In the five years, there were 535 fire focus (in 147 days), which varied annually from 62 to 157, respectively, in 2018 and 2020. The month of September concentrated the highest number of fire focus (277), followed by August (99). Meteorological variables varied annually and monthly (with marked seasonality) during the time series studied. The hottest year was 2017 (23.47°C) and 2018 the coldest (22.88°C), with the highest accumulated precipitation (1,485.60 mm). The months between May and September have lower air temperature, relative humidity, dew point temperature and precipitation. Only air temperature correlated with fire focus (r = 0.67), but without significance (p = 0.23). The Fórmula de Monte Alegre Changed showed better performance than the other wildfire danger indices for Jataí in the analyzed period.