Forest Fires in the United States: 26 August 1999
Forest Fires in the United States
26 August 1999
Thousands of firefighters are battling blazes across the West, where lightning, wind, and low humidity have fueled the flames. About 300 wildfires, mostly caused by lightning, were raging in California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Idaho. The blazes have burned brush and trees, however, the most of the blazes happened in Northern California. Beside lightning, one of the serious fire reasons of the late-summer season are the campers. Campers and outdoor recreationists are warned that campfires are banned in some areas. It is supposed to remain hot and dry in the upcoming days. A new weather system is coming into the West that will include lightning with very little rain.
The National Interagency Fire Center reported on 25 August 1999 that there are 24 large fires burning in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Utah for a total of more than 35,000 ha. The areas of fire are shown in the large fire map below.
“Northern California is responding to hundreds of small and large fires in the wake of a storm system that passed through the area earlier this week. There are currently 14 large fires burning in California, 10 of which are fire complexes that consist of numerous fires being managed by one team. The National Interagency Coordination Center at NIFC is mobilizing resources from other areas in the country to assist with suppression efforts in California where many of these fires are threatening nearby structures and other private property.
Nevada also experienced an increase in activity this week and there are currently four large fire complexes burning in the state. “
Fig. 1. Large Wildland Fires in the United States, 25 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, 25 August 1999
(Source: BLM – Alaska Fire Service )
According the INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SITUATION REPORT the current situation for 26 August 1999 can be quoted as follows:
“…
CURRENT SITUATION
Large fire activity continued in the Western Great Basin and California Areas as hot and dry weather conditions prevailed. New large fire activity was reported in the Northwest, California, Eastern Great Basin and Northern Rockies Areas. Initial attack activity decreased and was moderate in most areas.
Competition exists for airtankers, leadplanes, type I and II helicopters and type I crews. The National Interagency Coordination Center mobilized airtankers, helicopters, lead planes, infrared aircraft, radio equipment, caterers, showers, engines, crews, smokejumpers and miscellaneous overhead. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in Oregon, Washington, California, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
OUTLOOK:
A fire weather watch is posted for dry lighting this afternoon through midnight for northern California, south-central Oregon and northern Nevada.
High pressure is building from the four corners area. At the same time a deepening thermal low at the surface will allow monsoon moisture to spread north. This will result in a few high based dry thunderstorms across northern California, northern Nevada, northern Utah, southern Oregon and southern Idaho. Farther south thunderstorms are expected to be scattered and mainly wet. The same high pressure will maintain hot and dry weather with isolated afternoon thunderstorms across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Temperatures will be one to five degrees warmer and humidities will be drier with minimum readings in the single digits and teens across the Great Basin, northern California, eastern Oregon and southern Idaho. Humidities will be in the teens and 20’s across Northern Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. The trend remains for warming and drying.
…”
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 599 25,876 68,075 1,634,906
For detailed information regarding specified regions, please refer to the whole report.
