Forest Fires in the United States
17 August 1999
The National Interagency Fire Center reported on 16 August 1999 that six large fires burning in California, Idaho, Texas and Washington for a total of 4,224 ha. The areas of fire are shown in the large fire map below. Regarding to the Wildland Fire Update of the above mentioned Center, moderate wildland fire activity occured over the weekend as cool, wet weather blanketed the West. Forecasts for this week show a warming trend accompanied by dryer conditions throughout the West, while cooler temperatures and rain showers are expected in the drought-striken eastern states.
Fig. 1. Large Wildland Fires in the United States, 16
August 1999
(National Interagency Fire
Center)
For more information please refer to the website of National Interagency Fire Center.
The BLM - Alaska Fire Service Initial Attack Management System (IAMS) is suite of computer applications developed by BLM/Fire to aid dispatchers and fire managers. IAMS Maps is one of these applications and provides graphical representation of various kinds of geographic data. Maps has been modified to produce output to a Web site to allow internet access to the data that IAMS stores. Dynamic data such as lightning (available May - September), fires, etc. are updated at the homepage of the BLM - Alaska Fire Service (select Maps / AFS IAMS Maps Viewer) every 15 minutes during the fire season.
Fig.2. IAMS image of active fires in Alaska, 16 August
1999
(Source: BLM - Alaska Fire Service )
According the INCIDENT
MANAGEMENT SITUATION REPORT the current situation for 16 August 1999
can be quoted as follows:
"...
CURRENT SITUATION:
Moderate initial attack activity was reported in the Southern California Area, with
minimal initial attack activity elsewhere. One new large fire was reported in the
Northwest Area. Good progress was achieved on the large fires in the Northwest, Southern
California, Western Great Basin, and Southern Areas.
Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in Oregon, Washington, California,
Montana, North Dakota, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Texas.
OUTLOOK:
California will be mostly sunny except partly cloudy with isolated afternoon thunderstorms
over the Sierra Nevada mountains and southeastern deserts.
High temperatures will be 70's to 80's in the mountains and 90's to near 108 in the inland
valleys and deserts.
Idaho will be sunny to partly cloudy with patchy morning valley fog in the mountains. High
temperature will be in the upper 60's to the lower 80's and mid 70's to mid 80's in the
valleys.
Washington and Oregon will be cloudy with local drizzle becoming mostly sunny and warmer
in the west. The eastern portion will be mostly sunny and
warmer. High temperatures will be 70's in the mountains and 75 to 85 in the lower
elevations.
Texas will be mostly sunny. High temperatures will be near 90 in the mountains to 110
degrees along the Rio Grande.
..."
Following basic fire data describe the fire situation in the UNITED STATES.
| Number of FIRES in the last 24 hours | HECTARES burning in the last 24 hours | FIRES YEAR-TO-DATE |
HECTARES YEAR-TO-DATE |
| 160 | 5,357 | 63,937 | 1,559,580 |
For detailed information regarding specified regions, please refer to the whole report.