Widespread extreme heat and critically dry vegetation nationwide prompted experts to issue multiple fuels and fire behavior advisories throughout the July 4 weekend. Forecasters don’t expect relief anytime soon.
The National Interagency Fire Center has two active advisories, which are only issued during extreme circumstances that pose elevated threats to firefighters or public safety, for vast areas of the country, including:
- An advisory issued from June 26 through July 10 for Eastern Nevada, Utah and the Arizona Strip.
- An advisory issued from July 1 through July 14 for portions of Colorado and Wyoming.
One of the fires burning in the advisory area, the Snyder Mesa Fire, has burned over 30,000 acres and caused the deaths of three wildland firefighters earlier this week. It currently sits at 65% containment as of Friday, but wildfire officials said there’s an elevated risk of the fire breaching containment due to observed extreme fire spread, critically dry fuels, and drought-stressed brush and trees.
“Fuel conditions across the Geographic Area are significantly drier and more volatile than normal for late-June,” the NIFC’s advisory said. “Prolonged heat, low humidity, and steady winds have rapidly dried out live and dead fuels, especially native grasses, trees/brush, and 1000-hour fuels. In most of Colorado and a good part of Southern Wyoming, moisture levels are nearing or exceeding historic lows, triggering fire behavior seen only during the driest and
most severe fire seasons.”
Apart from the risk of fireworks igniting wildfires, forecasters also warned about elevated fire risk due to strong gusts in the Greater Four Corners region and isolated dry thunderstorms developing in both Wyoming and portions of New Mexico and Texas. A warming trend in the western U.S. also sets up high fire probability, along with record-high temperatures throughout the East Coast.
1 Comment
I read that the area was older timber heavily attacked by mountain pine beetle. Wildfire is a logical follow up as nature needs to remove old trees to make space for the seeds of the parent crop to land, germinate, and grow to provide long-term changing habitats for the many species of forest ecosystems. The better option, in many cases, is harvesting the old timber before the beetles infest the trees. Dry trees are more flammable. Removing the old tree fuel reduces the heat of any wildfire to a singe class, which helps reduce soil, plants, wildlife, and human infrastructure and health damage. These are all things well-known, even though some scientists and environmentalists try to deny the benefits of harvesting and forest management.
The management of forests with harvesting is much better than nature\’s chaos and trauma at all levels in meeting the objective of forest conservation of biodiversity.
Brian LaPointe, BSc Forestry, MBA