Earlier today we wrote about the three-day, three-fire, three-state road trip where a group of us boarded a very comfortable bus, or coach, and toured the sites of three large fires that occurred last fall in North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee.
Here are some photos, taken by Bill Gabbert. If you click on a photo, you’ll see larger versions. The captions are in the top-left.
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Three days, three states, three fires.
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Above: The map shows the locations of some of the larger wildfires currently burning in Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia.
Firefighters continue to battle dozens of fires in the southern United States while the residents in the area try to figure out how to live with the smoke.
Fire managers are hoping for a break in the weeks-long dry period, but through Friday at least they should expect more of the same. However there is a chance for rain on Saturday.
Here we will look at six of the larger fires in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Party Rock Fire
The Party Rock Fire has been burning just north of Lake Lure, North Carolina since November 5. It has blackened 4,480 acres, an increase of 736 acres, and forced evacuations at Bat Cave and residences on the east side of Hwy 9. In recent days it has been most active on the north and southwest sides.
Rock Mountain Fire
The Rock Mountain Fire has burned 6,747 acres in the northeast corner of Georgia, an increase of 1,263 acres over the previous 24 hours primarily on the northeast and west sides. The Type 1 Incident Management Team reports that 75 structures are threatened, but none have been destroyed.
Above: The map shows the location of some of the larger wildfires currently burning in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
There are still dozens of wildfires burning in the southern United States, primarily in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Firefighters have slowed the progress of many of them but others are still spreading. The weather on Sunday was not quite as conducive to extreme fire behavior, but most areas are still extremely dry and have not had significant precipitation in weeks.
The weather forecast for the Asheville, NC area through Saturday, November 12, calls for more of the same weather — moderate winds, daily high temperatures in the 60s, and relative humidities in the 80s at night and the 30s in the afternoon.
Below are some statistics for the active fires in the Southern Geographic Area:
Here is a look at five of the more active blazes:
Party Rock Fire
The Party Rock Fire has been burning just north of Lake Lure, North Carolina since November 5. It has blackened 3,457 acres and required evacuations in the Chimney Rock community. On Saturday and Sunday it grew by 574 acres, with most of the additional acres being on the southwest and northwest sides.
Tellico Fire
The Tellico Fire three miles south of Almond, North Carolina expanded by 3,791 acres over the weekend and now stretches across 13,676 acres after merging with another fire, the Ferebee Fire. It spotted across the Little Tennessee River to the east, but that spot was contained at about 100 acres. U.S. Highway 19 on the west side of the fire was closed on Sunday.
Above: The map shows the location of some of the larger wildfires in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia November 11, 2016.
(UPDATED at 4:59 p.m. ET November 11, 2016)
The intense wildfire activity that has been going on for weeks in the southeast United States ramped up a bit over the last 24 hours as extremely low relative humidities allowed some of the blazes to continue to spread aggressively Thursday night. A weather station southeast of Asheville, NC 9 miles northwest of the 977-acre Party Rock Fire recorded 9 percent RH early Friday morning. Night time humidities in that part of the country are usually far above 50 percent at night.
The good news is the conditions will moderate a little over the next several days after the passage of a cold front.
There are currently 31 uncontained wildfires in the Southern Geographic Area. Here some other numbers about the fires in the region (data from the National Interagency Coordination Center and the Southern Area Coordination Center):
Above: Party Rock Fire near Chimney Rock, NC. Photo by Cathy Anderson.
(UPDATED at 11:53 a.m. ET November 12, 2016)
The Party Rock Fire at Chimney Rock, North Carolina continued to spread on Friday and has now blackened 2,626 acres according to information from the Incident Management Team at 7 p.m. on Friday.
Areas under mandatory evacuation orders include the entire community of Chimney Rock, the Highway 74-A corridor west of Chimney Rock, Rumbling Bald Resort, and some areas in the Town of Lake Lure.
There are no reports of any structures being destroyed.
On Friday air tankers and helicopters dropped water and retardant to help slow the spread of the fire and to protect the communities.
A section of Highway 74-A was closed for a period of time Friday afternoon.
The weather has changed to be more in favor of the firefighters. After some single-digit relative humidities earlier in the week, on Saturday it should bottom out at 30 percent in the fire area after having risen to around 80 percent overnight. The wind will not be a major problem, and is predicted to be out of the northeast at 4 to 6 mph with gusts of 5 to 10 mph. The high temperature will be 53 degrees. Sunday will be about the same, but a little warmer and drier.
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(Originally published at 2:01 ET November 11, 2016)
The rapid spread of the Party Rock Fire overnight is causing evacuations for some areas within the community of Chimney Rock, North Carolina. The fire is just west of Lake Lure, on the north side of Chimney Rock, and is 18 miles southeast of Asheville.
Here is a link to a map with details about the evacuation.
The fire started November 5 in Chimney Rock State Park and is being managed by Dan Brandon’s North Carolina Type 2 Incident Management Team. As of Thursday evening it had burned 977 acres and was being fought by 165 personnel.
Part of the reason for the increased fire activity over the last 24 hours was the extremely low relative humidity. It is not uncommon for this part of the country to have the RH go up near 100 percent at night, but Thursday afternoon it got down to 10 percent, went up to around 30 percent at midnight, then dropped as low as 9 percent before sunrise. At 2:04 p.m. ET on Friday it was 27 percent, still low for North Carolina. Aggravating the situation was 10 to 20 mph wind gusts out of the west and southeast.
The forecast calls for the RH to rise into the 40s later Friday afternoon and into the 70s during the night. The wind Friday afternoon will be out of the north and northwest at 8 mph with 20 mph gusts. The temperature will be around 60. These conditions will be challenging for firefighters
Saturday the RH will be in the 40s under sunny skies.