The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings or Fire Weather Watches for areas in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Maine.
The map was current at 6:20 a.m. MDT on Friday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
The NWS is not predicting Red Flag Conditions in Utah. On Thursday officials on the Fish Lake National Forest in southern Utah conducted a 150-acre prescribed fire (see below).
Ignitions on #SouthMonroeRx went well today. #FishlakeNF reports an estimated 150 acres burned. No ignitions planned for tomorrow (5/11). Personnel will be onsite tomorrow to monitor the project throughout the day. pic.twitter.com/VIaCSjf3Ey
The Mississippi Forestry Commission (@MSForestryComm) put this photo on Twitter today, honoring their delivery of “quality forest management services and assistance to private forest landowners for 92 years”.
Anyone want to take a stab at the date it was taken? I’m guessing the truck is from the mid-60’s. There is a number on the side that looks like “2700”. I don’t know if that’s a model, or a vehicle number assigned by the MFC.
The eruption of the volcano on the Big Island in Hawaii is certainly tragic for the owners of the 26 homes that have been destroyed and the 1,700 residents of Leilani Estates that have been forced to evacuate. We are not going to try to cover the incident like we would a large vegetation fire — primarily because it is very difficult to obtain the kind of information we would normally collect about a fire. We have made some inquiries with a couple of agencies but distributing information to the media could be pretty far down their list of priorities. They no doubt have their hands full.
But we have found a bit of information about what is going on there. Approximately 104 acres are directly affected by vents, fissures, or 2,000F-degree lava. The activity paused for a bit Monday, but Tuesday morning two additional fissures developed, bringing the total to 14 and requiring the total evacuation of Lanipuna.
Previous eruptions on the island have ignited vegetation fires, but while we have seen some trees and shrubs burning in videos, it seems to mostly be when they are directly contacted by the molten lava.
A friend of ours has been in Hawaii for at least a week and most of the numerous photos he has posted on Facebook have shown cloudy skies. The weather Monday and Tuesday at Hilo included rain with humidities in the 90’s, so until that changes there might not be much of a wildfire threat.
If any of our readers have confirmed information about resources assigned or an Incident Command System being used, let us know in the comments.
In the Leilani Estates Subdivision, fissure 7 was active for several hours on May 5 with large bubble bursts and spatter. A short lava flow moved northeast and crossed Hookupu St. USGS photo.
In 2012 when I first heard of Jennifer Brown she was working in the Interpretation Division in Everglades National Park and her term appointment was about to end. She had just produced for the National Park Service an excellent film about prescribed fire titled “River of Fire”. Now with many other videos about fire under her belt with her company Into Nature Films, she has produced another — “Fire: In the Florida Scrub”. As with some of her other projects, she partnered with the former Fire Management Officer at Everglades National Park, Rick Anderson.
Here is the official description of the film:
Fire is one of the earth’s dominant forces. ‘Surviving Fire: In the Florida Scrub’ features three decades of discovery by Dr. Eric Menges. After watching this powerful short film, you will never look at Florida plants the same away again. This film pays tribute to the special people who dedicate their lives to improving fire management. Join Eric Menges for a 16 minute exploration into the elegant and unexpected ways plants survive fire. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and produced by Into Nature Films in collaboration with Archbold Biological Station.
Like the other “Into Nature Films”, this one is beautifully photographed and very clearly tells the story. It’s impressive how they had video footage to illustrate almost every point brought up in the narration.
Above: Dog trainer Francisca Torres and her three border collies. Screenshot from the video below.
Three border collies are helping to reseed areas in Chile that burned during the siege of wildfires that blackened large sections of the country in January of 2017.
The high-energy dogs are outfitted with pouches containing native seed. As they run through the burned trees the seeds are distributed along their path.
Above: Satellite photo taken May 6, 2018, showing the OK Bar Fire in Arizona.
Firefighters are just about finished with the OK Bar Fire in the southern panhandle of New Mexico three miles from the Mexican border. They made their “final” update on InciWeb May 4, writing:
The perimeter of the fire is secure, and firefighters are patrolling the perimeter and monitoring the fire by air. Due to aggressive fire management planning by the landowner and supporting non-profit organization, fire suppression actions have been designed to maximize firefighter safety and keep costs commensurate with the values at risk. Smoke and flames will continue to be visible on the mountain until significant moisture has been received on the fire.
The management strategy was not full suppression. Sunday’s National Situation Report shows 61,436 acres burned, an increase of 188 over the day before, and 5 engines assigned, for a total of 20 personnel.
The red line was the perimeter of the OK Bar Fire as determined by infrared mapping at 2400 MDT May 3, 2018. The red, yellow, and brown dots represent heat detected by a satellite.
