SEPTEMBER 2022CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM8CIO InsightsCXO InsightsIn My Viewdvances in technology and data are making the work of assessing wildfire risk easier and more accurate. In addition to helping insurance carriers have a better understanding of the risk they are assuming, insurance carriers are encouraging customers to be better prepared, too. PEMCO Insurance serves communities across the Pacific Northwest. Vast swaths of the Northwest are wildfire country, so it is risk to which we are accustomed and must be skilled at managing. Among the information available to us, the National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook from the Predictive Services of the National Interagency Fire Center is where we start our assessment of risk in the coming months.HARRIS CLARKE, PEMCO INSURANCE VICE PRESIDENT OF CLAIMS, CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SALESAHOW THE NORTHWEST'S LARGEST LOCALLY BASED INSURER MANAGES WILDFIRE RISKWith most of the West in drought conditions, the outlook for wildfire season does not look promising. In the Pacific Northwest, we're currently experiencing prolonged La Nina conditions, and in our part of the country, that typically translates to colder and wetter weather patterns that give us a solid snowpack at higher elevations. And this Spring has also been cooler and wetter than normal.While the runoff from a healthy snowpack offers many benefits to wildland areas ­ often including a slower start to wildfire season ­ a healthy snowpack doesn't necessarily make wildfire less likely. Wildfires are a meteorological event and with weather that is more variable, tend to accompany both dry weather and high winds. Wildfires need three things: A source of ignition, fuel, and wind. With climate change, relative humidity is staying low overnight, further drying out fuels and making ignition easy and more likely. Add in more humans moving into the wildland urban interface, and again likelihood for ignition goes up.While I think it is difficult to know precisely what impact climate change is having on wind, the increased frequency of wildfire suggests the combination of strong winds that exacerbate dry fuel Harris Clarke
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