Firedz is a specialized Python package designed for atmospheric scientists and operational meteorologists to assess and forecast wildfire risks using High-Resolution Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) data.
Optimized for Mediterranean climates (specifically the Algeria/DZ region), it bridges the gap between raw meteorological outputs and actionable wildfire intelligence.
- Hybrid Indices: Implements both the HDW (Hot-Dry-Windy) index for dynamic fire behavior and the IFM (Indice Forêt Météo / FWI) for cumulative fuel dryness.
- NWP Native: Built-in support for GRIB and NetCDF formats (via
xarrayandcfgrib), specifically tuned for AROME and ALADIN models. - VPD Core: Accurate Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) calculations for fuel flammability assessment.
- Operational Scalability: Modular architecture designed for integration into 24/7 automated forecasting pipelines.
Firedz focuses on two complementary meteorological perspectives:
-
HDW (Hot-Dry-Windy) Index:
$HDW = U_{max} \times (e_s - e_a)$ Focuses on the atmospheric capacity to drive explosive fire growth through wind speed and Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD). -
IFM (Indice Forêt Météo): Focuses on long-term fuel moisture content and fire propagation potential based on the Canadian Fire Weather Index System.
Since firedz is structured as a modern Python package, you can install it in development mode:
git clone [https://github.com/walidchikhi/firedz.git](https://github.com/walidchikhi/firedz.git)
cd firedz
git checkout python_package
pip install -e .