Forest Fires in the United States
18 August 1999
The National Interagency Fire Center reported on 17 August 1999 that five large fires burning in Arizona, Idaho, Texas and Washington for a total of 2,032 acres (822 ha). The areas of fire are shown in the large fire map below. Regarding to the Wildland Fire Update of the above mentioned Center, a lull in significant wildland fire activity may be short lived as weather patterns set the stage for another round of potential activity. There were two large fires reported yesterday from Wyoming and Arizona, but both are expected to be contained by tomorrow.
Fig. 1. Large Wildland Fires in the United States, 17
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, 17 August
1999
(Source: BLM - Alaska Fire Service )
According the INCIDENT
MANAGEMENT SITUATION REPORT the current situation for 17 August 1999
can be quoted as follows:
"...
CURRENT SITUATION:
Minimal initial attack activity was reported in the west. New large fires were
reported in the Northwest and Southwest Areas. Good progress was achieved on
large fires in the Northwest and South California Areas. Very high to extreme fire
indices were reported in Oregon, California, Montana, North Dakota, Idaho, Utah, Nevada,
South Dakota, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire,
New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Texas.
OUTLOOK:
"...
Washington will be mostly sunny and warmer with a chance of late day
thunderstorms in the Cascades. High temperatures will be 70 to 75 on the coast with 75 to
mid 90's inland.
Oregon will be sunny and warm except areas of morning clouds along the
coast. There is a chance of late afternoon thunderstorms. Coastal high temperatures will
be in the mid to upper 60's. High temperatures inland will be around 85 in the north to
the mid 90's in the Rogue Basin and east of the cascades.
California will be sunny, except some afternoon clouds with isolated
thunderstorms over the far northern mountains. High temperatures will be in the upper 80's
to mid 90's across the inland valleys and 90 to 108 in the southern deserts.
Idaho will be sunny and much warmer. High temperatures will be in the mid
80's to lower 90's in the valleys and upper 70's to mid 80s in the mountains.
Nevada will be mostly sunny with isolated showers and thunderstorms in
the north, east central and along the eastern border. High temperatures will be in the mid
80's to mid 90's and up to 108 in the southern portion.
Utah will be mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and thunderstorms.
High temperatures will be in the 80's and low 90's with 70's to lower 80's in the
mountains.
Texas will be mostly sunny. High temperatures will be 80's in the
mountains to near 104 in the desert lowlands.
..."
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 |
| 326 | 1,153 | 64,186 | 1,560,698 |
For detailed information regarding specified regions, please refer to the whole report.