Distribution and characteristics of lightning-ignited wildfires in boreal forests – the BoLtFire database

Engle, Brittany; Bratoev, Ivan; Crowley, Morgan A.; Zhu, Yanan; Senf, Cornelius

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-2249-2025

Articles | Volume 17, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-2249-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-2249-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 6

Data description paper

|

02 Jun 2025

Data description paper |

| 02 Jun 2025

Distribution and characteristics of lightning-ignited wildfires in boreal forests – the BoLtFire database

Brittany Engle, Ivan Bratoev, Morgan A. Crowley, Yanan Zhu, and Cornelius Senf

Data sets

Distribution and Characteristics of Lightning-Ignited Wildfires in Boreal Forests - the BoLtFire database Brittany Engle et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14940326

Model code and software

BoLtFire Code Release version 1 (v1.0.0) B. Engle and I. Bratoev https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15425619

Short summary

The pan-boreal lightning-ignited wildfire (BoLtFire) dataset spans the entire boreal forest from 2012 to 2022, focusing on fires of at least 200 ha. Developed using a new methodology to match lightning to wildfires in the boreal region, it includes 6902 fires – 4201 in Eurasia and 2701 in North America. BoLtFire provides new opportunities to model the ignition and spread dynamics of boreal wildfires and offers deeper insights into lightning-driven fire activity globally.