Automated Tool for Fine Dead Fuel Moisture Content Estimation for Mediterranean Wildfire Management Applications

Fine dead fuel moisture content is the single most critical factor in wildfire behavior prediction, directly influencing rate of spread, flame length, and fire intensity. This paper presents the development and deployment of a web-based tool that adapts the foundational Fosberg-Rothermel fuel moisture estimation system for Mediterranean wildfire management applications. The original imperial unit tables (Rothermel, 1983) have been converted to metric units and simplified for integration with numerical weather prediction model outputs. The tool eliminates elevation-based corrections by assuming co-location with weather station data (typical of numerical model grid points), restructures monthly corrections into seasonal categories for improved usability, and implements civil time formatting for operational use. A web-accessible calculator with interactive visualization has been deployed at forestfire.app. Comprehensive testing across 100 representative scenarios confirms mathematical equivalence with the original methodology (zero computational error). The tool integrates empirically-derived fire danger thresholds from Mediterranean European ecosystems (Resco de Dios et al., 2022), where critical fire activity onset occurs at 10-12% fuel moisture content across seven pyroregions. While the underlying Fosberg-Rothermel methodology has 45+ years of validation (r² = 0.79-0.87 with field measurements), this specific metric/seasonal implementation requires independent field validation in Mediterranean ecosystems to confirm operational equivalence with the original monthly table structure. The calculator is deployed for operational testing and user feedback in Mediterranean fire management contexts.