Future Fire Weather Projections CanLEAD-FWI Version 1.0

Canadian wildfire activity is changing in part because human-caused climate change is causing more hot and dry weather conditions conducive to wildfires, also referred to as “fire weather” (Kirchmeier-Young et al., 2019). Fire weather is described by a system called the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System, developed by Natural Resources Canada (Natural Resources Canada, n.d.). The FWI System is widely used for wildfire planning in Canada and comprises codes and indices that reflect the potential impact of weather on different aspects of wildfire. Each of these provides different measures of hot, dry and/or windy conditions and their potential impact on wildfire. The first three FWI System components are called the fuel moisture codes because they describe the dryness of wildfire fuel at different layers of the forest floor based on weather conditions. These codes are the Fine Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC), the Duff Moisture Code (DMC), and the Drought Code (DC). The last three FWI System components describe how wildfires might behave if started. These components are the Buildup Index (BUI), the Initial Spread Index (ISI), and the Fire Weather Index (FWI). Each of the FWI…

Publisher

Environment and Climate Change Canada

Resources

2

Catalogue metadata updated

2026-02-17