Weather Words: Flare-up

If you have been watching the wildfires in southern California, you may be hearing terms you may not recognize. When a wildfire is burning, the rate at which the fire burns isn’t always consistent. That’s what can make fighting these fires so dangerous and unpredictable.

A flare-up is a sudden and short-lived increase in the intensity of the spread of a wildfire. During a flare-up, the flames will rapidly accelerate for a short period of time. This flare-up is many times due to a change in wind conditions or the presence of readily combustible fuel - which is a material that can burn rapidly or catch fire very easily.

Firefighters always have to be ready for the potential for a flare-up and react quickly if there’s a sudden change or acceleration in which the fire is burning. Luckily, during a flare-up, firefighters usually don’t have to drastically change their control plans because the flare-ups only last for a short amount of time.

This segment originally appeared in today's edition of the Morning Brief newsletter. Sign up here to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.

J​ennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.