Florida 2023 Lightning-Caused Wildfire Season
Looking back at wildfires this year and looking forward at how we can address future fire risk through collaboration and technology
What is High-Risk-Lightning?
As the Lightning Capital of the US, Florida is especially vulnerable to dangerous lightning events (called High-Risk-Lightning) that can spark wildfires. In 2022, there were over 198 million lightning events across the entire US, of which over 18 million occurred in Florida alone, according to Vaisala's Annual Lightning Report .
The risk for lightning fires in the future is even greater , as lightning becomes more frequent with global warming.
Fire Neural Network is proud to partner with the Florida Forest Service to support their work in combating uncontrollable lightning-caused wildfires.
Wildfires in 2023
View this map of select High-Risk-Lightning ignited wildfires in Central Florida from March through July 2023. You can see the date when each event occurred by clicking on the fire icon.
Data from the Florida Forest Service
Case Studies
We examine four of the lightning-caused wildfires from earlier this year. The approximate fire locations come from the Florida Forest Service, and the before-and-after Sentinel-2 satellite images are downloaded from the Copernicus Browser.
Wildfires Over Time
Click the play button to see a timelapse of wildfires since 1984. You can zoom in and out using the buttons on the lower-right corner, and you can move the map to view other regions across the US.
Data from the USGS and US Forest Service's Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program (ArcGIS Living Atlas)
Climate Change Impacts
More and more fires have been occurring in recent decades. As climate change creates warmer, drier conditions around the world, fire seasons become more active and sustained, according to NOAA and the Climate Science Special Report .
In the southeast US, lightning-ignited wildfires are expected to burn at least 30% more area by 2060 . High-Risk-Lightning are characterized by long-continuing-current (where there are continuing electrical currents that flow for longer than 40 milliseconds), making them more dangerous and likely to spark wildfires. By the 2090s, there will be a 41% increase in the flash rate of long-continuing-current lightning globally .
Future Outlook
Through High-Risk-Lightning detection , collaborating with firefighters and forestry organizations, and supporting community wildfire protection, we can ensure that communities are best equipped to address the growing risk of lightning-ignited wildfires.