Wildfires are an ongoing challenge in the western United States, where droughts and warmer conditions have combined with a century of fire suppression to form perfect conditions for monstrous fires. It’s long been understood that ambient winds can drive spreading fire, but the connection between wildfire and wind is more complicated than this.
The heat of a fire drives buoyant air to rise, creating tower-like updrafts in a flame front. We see this both in the shape of the grass fire above, and in the wind vectors of a simulated grass fire in the lower image. Between those towers are troughs where cooler ambient wind is drawn in to replace the rising air. How a fire spreads will depend on the speed, direction, and temperature of these winds. A hot wind fed by the fire’s heat will raise the temperature of fuel in unburned areas, bringing it closer to ignition. In contrast, cooler ambient winds can hinder a fire by keeping nearby grass and twigs too cool to ignite. (Image credit: fire – M. Finney/US Forest Service; simulation – R. Linn; research credit: R. Linn et al.; for more, see Physics Today)