THE LĀHAINĀ WILDFIRES FROM A METEOROLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

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2024

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ABSTRACT In the diverse ecological landscape of Hawaiʻi, wildfires play a conflicting role. They are fierce and create new life but also create significant destruction. Therefore, finding ways to predict better and be more prepared for such disasters is important. This paper will focus on the recent Lāhainā wildfire in August of 2023. Analyzing data mainly from NASA and Timothy W. Juliano and his team at the U.S. NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research allows for a comprehensive look at the wildfire's behavior. The severity of the wildfire is likely related to the occurrence of a strong high-pressure system interacting with the West Maui mountains to enhance down-sloping winds over abandoned agricultural lands neighboring the town of Lāhainā, along with extremely dry conditions. I will present this data from the Lāhainā wildfire with the hope that the data will bring better awareness to how certain aspects of climate change, like increased severity and duration of drought and decrease in precipitation can worsen already impactful and destructive natural disasters. Additionally, this Lāhainā 2023 wildfire data analysis provides information that may support future disaster preparedness and response planning to enhance community resilience and minimize the consequences of such events.

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http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Dyer, Kyra

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