Testing Your Understanding of FSPro Histograms

Use the Beaverdam histogram information to answer the following questions:

1. What is the largest size fire simulated?
2. What is the average size of the simulated fires?
3. Let's say the air quality folks are concerned about fires greater than 10,000 acres, what is the probability of 10,000 acres or more burning in 30 days? (This is a little tricky, but see what you come up with and then check your answer with the solution below)

Answers:

1. Looking at the fire size table on the left side of the image, the largest fire simulated was 54,422 acres.
2. The average fire size was 8829 acres as shown in both the fire size table and in the final fire size histogram.
3. To figure out the probability of a fire of 10,00 acres or greater, you need to add the numbers above the grey bars that are to the right of the 10 (which stands for 10,000 acres), and then divide that number by the total number of fires (3008).  Therefore, you need to add the following: 553+224+102+63+29+10+8+3+1, which equals 993.  When you divide 993 by 3008 you get  0.33, which means there is a 33% probability that the fire will burn 10,000 acres or more in 30 days.

 

 

In This Section Addition outputs from FSPro

Reference Field Descriptions Glossary Resources Spatial Data Reference Landscape Data Source Reference Relative Risk Reference Organization Assessment Reference Fire Behavior Reference About the WFDSS Decision Editors