How Do You Rate This Publication?       

Title:	Relationship Between Palmer's Drought Severity Index and the Moisture Index of Woody Debris in the Southern Coastal Plain
Author(s):	Haywood, James D.; Stagg, Richard H.; Tiarks, Allan E.
Date:	2004
Source:	Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS–71. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. pp. 39-43
Description:	After the 1998 through 2000 drought in Louisiana, some prescribed burns had uncommonly severe fire behavior. A significant portion of the consumed fuels most likely were larger material normally unavailable for burning. Therefore at sites in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, we studied the relationship between Palmer’s Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and the drying rate of 3- to 12-inch-diameter woody fuels, expressed as resistance of fuel moisture to electrical current in kiloPascals. Woody fuels dried as drought severity increased. Once the drought abated in Novem-ber 2000, fuel moisture indexes rose but not as quickly as PDSI. Although there is a general relationship between drought condition and drying of large-diameter fuels 1 year after the drought ended, large fuels had not sufficiently rewetted and remained available for burning in the event of a wildfire or prescribed burn.
	View and Print this Publication (812 KB)
Publication Notes:	We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information. This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain. Our on-line publications are scanned and captured using Adobe Acrobat. During the capture process some typographical errors may occur. Please contact the SRS Webmaster, srswebmaster@fs.fed.us if you notice any errors which make this publication unuseable.
	Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility