An interview with fire meteorologist Professor Craig Clements

A professor and director at the Fire Weather Research Laboratory at San José University, meteorologist Dr. Craig Clements’ research makes the previously unseen inner workings of wildfires visible. Here he sheds light on how the likes of Doppler lidar are helping us to understand fire behaviour and why…

MS: From your doctorate onwards, you have worked with leading-edge technologies for measuring, monitoring, and modelling various aspects of wildland fires. Describe some of these technologies and the ways in which they have enabled you to see that which was invisible in the past.

CC: Higher resolution forecast models and Doppler lidar and radar observations have shed light on a number of mechanisms that in the past, were only hypothesized. For example, we now know that smoke shading from the plume, can impact the surface conditions at the fire front. This can really be a major feedback mechanism on fire spread, potentially causing the fire spread rate to decrease. 

MS: Thinking to recent breakthroughs in fire meteorology and atmospheric science more generally, what do you consider to be the most significant advances in our understanding of how and why wildland fires behave as they do and why?

CC:  At a time when fires appear to be getting larger and more severe, we are monitoring their characteristics better, particularly with new remote sensing technologies. I believe high spatial resolution satellites are, and will in the future, provide the most significant advances in our understanding of fire behaviour. Additionally, new infrared camera systems that can be mounted on aircraft can also allow us to better observe the fire environment and fire behaviour. 

MS: As a fire scientist of whom some of the research activities are undertaken within the immediate vicinity of wildfires, have you directly observed any changes in their typical behaviour throughout your career? 

CC: I have not seen it personally, so not really. But it is happening. Our team goes through firefighter training each season, so we can be qualified to be on the fireline. This provides my team with knowledge and understanding of safety protocols needed in this environment. It’s much different than say, storm chasing, because we are often in an area that is closed to the public and where many first responders are engaging in fire suppression operations. So having that knowledge is critical to keeping safe while collecting data on fire behaviour. It is apparent, that when we deploy our assets to the fire line, the fires are very destructive and some fire seasons are worse than others, so one year we may be on a fire that’s fairly “typical” while other years, the fires are much more destructive. We really try to stay out of those areas because my team are students and not professional firefighters. The good thing about the technologies we are using is that we can scan a fire from 2-4 km away, so we are usually in a very safe location. 

MS: Working with, among other equipment, a truck-mounted Doppler lidar, describe some of the ways in which the data that you and your team capture can help emergency crews working to mitigate risks to both people and property. 

CC: We provide atmospheric conditions such as wind profiles to the incident meteorologists. That information can help fire behaviour analysts understand where a fire may move next and at what rate.