Fire Index Page

The "fire index" shown on this page was originally developed to identify weather conditions that favor wildfires in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. Traditional indices (e.g. the Fosberg Index) often miss 100+ acre wildfires in these states, because the required weather conditions needed for large wildfires are different. Fire index values above 1 suggest weather conditions will favor wildfires in the Southeast United States, although this index can have a high false alarm rate if vegetation is too moist.

A more general parameter shown here is the "fire weather composite", which is intended to be applicable to all regions. Like the fire index, the "fire weather composite" ignores the condition of vegetation. Therefore, both the "fire index" and "fire weather composite" should be combined with the greenness and healthiness of local vegetation to assess wildfire potential.

This webpage automatically displays these two parameters in the state of Oklahoma by using data from the Oklahoma Mesonet, which refreshes every 5 minutes. However, the webpage also provides the ability to plug in temperature, dewpoint, and wind measurements to calculate the two fire weather parameters featured on this webpage. This can be used to assess wildfire potential at any locale.