Glossary

BCWS: British Columbia Wildfire Services

BUI : Buildup Index "The Buildup Index (BUI) is a numeric rating of the total amount of fuel available for combustion. It combines the DMC and the DC."

CIFFC: Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre

DC: Drought Code "The Drought Code (DC) is a numeric rating of the average moisture content of deep, compact organic layers. This code is a useful indicator of seasonal drought effects on forest fuels and the amount of smouldering in deep duff layers and large logs."

DMC: Duff Moisture Code"The Duff Moisture Code (DMC) is a numeric rating of the average moisture content of loosely compacted organic layers of moderate depth. This code gives an indication of fuel consumption in moderate duff layers and medium-size woody material."

CFFDRS: Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS)

DSR: Daily Severity Rating

EMBC: Emergency Management British Columbia

EMTC:Emergency Management Technology Cluster. This is a government initiative being driven by Ministry of Jobs, Trades and Technology to create a cluster of government, academic and technology partners to work on Emergency Management problems. Wildfire Predictive Services has been identified as one component of this cluster.

FBAN: fire behaviour analyst

FBP: Canadian Forests Fire Behaviour Prediction (FBP) System

FDI: Fire Danger Index

FFMC: Fine Fuel Moisture Code

FTL: fuel type layer

FWI: Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index

FWN: Fire Weather Network

GEM Global : Global Environmental Multiscale model "An integrated forecasting and data assimilation system has been developed with a view to meeting all of the current and foreseeable operational weather-forecasting needs of Canada for the coming years. The model's name GEM stands for Global Environmental Multiscale model."

GFS : Global Forecast System: "The Global Forecast System (GFS) is a global numerical weather prediction system containing a global computer model and variational analysis run by the United States' National Weather Service (NWS)." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Forecast_System)

HFI : Head Fire Intensity. Head fire intensity is a numerical ranking of difficulty of control for specific fuel types. Flame length is a main visual manifestation.

IMT: Incident Management Team - group that responds to emergency.

ISI: Initial Spread Index

MC: Moisture Content

PSU: predictive services unit

PS: predictive services

PWCC: Provincial Wildfire Coordination Centre

PWCO: Provincial Wildfire Coordination Officer

ROS : Rate of Spread. The rate of spread is in chains per hour (ch/h) and is defined as the speed with which the fire is moving away from the site of origin. Wind, moisture, and slope drive the fire. The flaming zone, or fire head, moves away from the origin quickly with great intensity.

RWCC : Regional Wildfire Coordination Centre

RWCO : Regional Wildfire Coordination Officer

SFMS : The spatial fire management system (sFMS) is a geographic information system based fire management information system that implements two core subsystems of the CFFDRS, along with other models and systems.

SWO : Senior Wildfire Officer

VRI: Vegetation Resource Inventory

Wx: Weather

Fire centres:

CaFC: Cariboo Fire Centre

CoFC: Coastal Fire Centre

KFC: Kamloops Fire Centre

NWFC: Northwest Fire Centre

PGFC: Prince George Fire Centre

SEFC: Southeast Fire Centre