Among many, there are 3 major atmospheric factors that influence fire behavior on a proposed prescribed fire.
- Relative Humidity
- Temperature
- Wind
These 3 primary factors interact with each other at different rates influencing the ability of fuel on the ground to burn, depending on it’s type, size, and arrangement.
Couple these things with geographic factors such as slope (how steep the ground is), and aspect (which direction the slope is facing) and you start to build a recipe for how fire will behave on any given day.
This leads to one of the few things a burner can do to influence fire behavior to gain the best results. A good burner combines the knowledge of all influencing factors and applies the appropriate firing technique to best achieve the results desired from the burn.
Firing technique is applying the fire to the ground in such a way that the fire moves with or against the conditions that influence its behavior. Fire behavior with be different burning downhill and against the wind than burning uphill with the wind.
See how I use a backing fire technique coupled with the weather, fuel, and topography to achieve my objective with the burn.