WCD-19. Wildfire impacts on land-surface properties: implications for weather forecasting

Abstract
Wildfires have burned extensive areas worldwide, with significant societal implications, including effects on the environment. Wildfires impact land-surface properties, such as nature of vegetation and characteristics of soils, from during the active burning to years and decades afterward. However, qualitative impacts of post-wildfire conditions on weather forecasting have not been well studied. In this study, we investigated the impact of post-wildfire conditions on weather forecasting using WRF with the improved land-surface parameters considering post-wildfire conditions. The results showed that post-wildfire conditions had noticeable impacts on the atmospheric profile and can be up to more than 3 kilometers high. Generally, near-surface air temperature can be about 1 Kelvin warm and 0.75 g/kg dry if considering the post-wildfire conditions. The results also showed that post-wildfire conditions affect the atmospheric profile of the surrounding unburned areas.