Above: Map showing the probability of a wildfire of at least 100 acres on January 12 between 1992 and 2015.
(Originally published at 10:40 a.m. MST January 9, 2018)
If you are searching for something to do on a cold winter day the National Weather Service has just what you need — an interactive map system showing the probability of a wildfire of various sizes by date of the year. You can choose what size fire you’re interested in, 100, 300, 1,000, or 5,000 acres and allow the map to animate the entire year, or manually step through in three-day intervals. The data is based on wildfire occurrence between 1992 and 2015.
It is interesting seeing how activity builds and declines in specific areas like southeast Oklahoma, northern Minnesota, and the confluence of Kentucky, West Virginia, and North Carolina.
Thanks go out to Nick Nauslar of the NWS Storm Prediction Center for updating the maps.
Here are some examples:
