The Forest Service believes that it can predict the number of forest fires per month in a forest, knowing the amount of rainfall that fell the previous month (X₁) and the average daily temperature for that month (X₂), taken from historical records. A regression yields the following:

(a) Write a brief memo interpreting the slopes, the intercept, and R² .

(b) Barren National Forest has had 4 inches of rain in the last month and has a historical mean temperature of 84 degrees for this month. What is the best estimate of the number of fires in Barren this month?

2.0 1.1X + .14X .003 Sylx = .021 Sb = = 561 Sylx = 1.4 R = .96 Adj. R = 96 N = 136