10-hour fuel moisture represents the moisture content of dead fuels 0.25 to 1 inch in diameter (small branches, twigs, litter), taking roughly 10 hours to respond to environmental changes. Critical for fire management, a 6–15% range is preferred for prescribed burns, with values below 6% indicating high ignition risk and erratic fire behavior.
An estimate (0-800) of the amount of precipitation (in 100ths of inches) needed to bring the top 8 inches of soil back to saturation. A value of 0 is complete saturation of the soil, a value of 800 means 8.00 inches of precipitation would be needed for saturation. In the 1988 version of NFDRS, outputs of KBDI are used to adjust live and dead fuel loadings.


