Spatiotemporal Distribution of Lightning-Caused Wildfires on Mount Mainalo, Central Peloponnese, Greece

This paper presents findings based on eighty (80) lightning-caused wildfires that occurred on Mount Mainalo, in central Peloponnese, Greece, from May 1998 to November 2022. The frequency of lightning-caused wildfires was found to increase in July and August, consistent with the occurrence of dry summer thunderstorms. Most wildfires ignited in the southern part of the mountain, at elevations between 1200 and 1800 m, and were primarily detected in the afternoon hours. We present spatial data, statistics and frequency distribution histograms of subsets of the database. The likelihood of at least one fire per season is approximately 96%, while the average number of wildfires per fire season is 3.2. These findings on the number of lightning-caused wildfires per year, the holdover time (the time interval between the ignition and fire detection), the wildfire detection time, the elevation of lightning-caused wildfire occurrence, the total annual burned area and the burned area per fire can support improving wildfire management in the region since they provide a thorough description of the regime of lightning-caused wildfire on Mount Mainalo. This research addresses a critical knowledge gap in the study of lightning-caused wildfires in the Mediterranean, which remain underexplored despite their growing relevance under climate change.