Workshop Announcement
Boundary Fire
International Arctic Research Center (IARC)
University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF)
Wednesday, 29 September 2004
For further information, please go to:
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/~kramm/announcement
Dear Colleagues,
As initiated by Roger Smith, Director of the Geophysical Institute,
University of Alaska Fairbanks, a Workshop on the Boundary Fire will be
held on Wednesday, 29 September 2004.
Primary themes of this workshop are:
(1) Basic Knowledge on Wildfire, Fire Behavior, and Fire Weather
(2) Impacts by Wildfires
(3) Observations during the Boundary Fire
(4) Requirements on Wildfire - Atmosphere Modeling
BACKGROUND
The Boundary Fire located northeast of Fairbanks was ignited by
lightning on 13 June 2004. This fire area has a long history of fire
occurrence. After two weeks of monitoring this fire, wind speed and wind
direction in Interior Alaska changed causing a rapid fire spread. The
number of acres burnt drastically increased from 40,000 on 26 June to
220,000 on 30 June. Fairbanks and its surroundings were covered by a
thick layer of smoke for several days. A second drastic fire spread
occurred during 4 July to 5 July so that the number of acres involved
exceeded 300,000. After that, the area of the Boundary Fire continuously
grew; the number of acres burnt exceeded 500,000 on 28 July. During that
time it was 20 miles northeast of Fairbanks.
Cooler temperatures and light rain that began on July 23 gave a huge
support to the crews (total personnel during that time: 842) fighting
against the fire. After 29 July, the Boundary Fire exhibited creeping
and smoldering fire behavior in most areas, and firefighter crews
started to mop up the fire area. Currently, the fire area is monitored;
the number of acres burnt amounts to 537,000.
Kind Regards,
Gerhard Kramm
Geophysical Institute
University of Alaska Fairbanks
E-mail: kramm [at] gi.alaska.edu