Study on forest fire danger over Northern China during the recent 50 years.

Daily meteorological data at 263 stations in northern China from 1956 to 2005 were used to calculate various forest fire danger weather (FFDW) indices, such as Nesterov Index (NI), Modified Nesterov Index (MNI), Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI), and Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI), at different time scales. The relationship between each index and forest fire was analyzed. MNI and FFDI were then selected to study the impact on forest fire danger due to climatic change in northern China in the recent 50 years. Results show that forest fire danger has significantly increased in Northeast China where there is the richest forest resource in China, and also increased in North China. However, it has not changed much in eastern part of Northwest China, and the forest fire danger has even significantly decreased in northern Xinjiang. Significant rise of forest fire danger in Northeast China mainly results from the co-effect of increase of temperature, and decreases of humidity and precipitation. Relative humidity change dominants forest fire danger trends in the four forest regions in northern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]