Forest Fires in the United States: 13 October 1999
Forest Fires in the United States
13 October 1999
The National Interagency Fire Center reported on 12 October 1999 that wildland fire activity was minimal during the weekend and only two large fires continue to burn in California. The Big Bar and Kirk complexes in California were first reported over a month ago, and continue to burn as hot and dry conditions persist.
Fire Weather Outlook
Mostly dry, warm weather is expected throughout the West, except for scattered showers in eastern Oregon, Washington, northern Idaho and Montana. Rain showers are expected throughout the Gulf states for most of the week, however, the rest of the Eastern states will be mostly dry.
Fig. 1. Large Wildland Fires in the United States, 12 October 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.
The latest IAMS image of active fires in Alaska is shown in a map of 5 October 1999.
According the INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SITUATION REPORT the current situation for 12 October 1999 can be quoted as follows:
“…
CURRENT SITUATION
Minimal initial attack activity was reported from all Geographic Areas. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in Oregon, California, Utah, Idaho and Colorado.
OUTLOOK:
High pressure will continue to dominate the weather over the extreme western U.S. and the southwestern states. This will result in dry conditions and warm temperatures in the interior. Morning low clouds and patchy fog will persist from coastal Washington southward to southern California, with gusty afternoon winds blowing over the interior deserts and canyons. Some precipitation may occur late in the day over northwest Washington state. High temperatures will range from the 60’s and 70’s along the coast and in the mountain ranges to the 70’s and 80’s over interior valleys and the northern Great Basin. Near record highs from the mid 90’s to 105 are expected in the interior deserts of California, southern Nevada and Arizona.
A weak frontal system with limited moisture will move across the northern Rockies and northern Idaho, while weakening high pressure and dry air continues over the southern sections of the region. Mostly cloudy skies are expected with scattered rain and snow showers in Montana, Wyoming and northern Idaho. There will be mostly sunny and dry weather over southern Idaho, southern Wyoming and Colorado. Expected highs will be in the 40’s and 50’s over the mountains of Montana and northern Idaho, to the 60’s and lower 70’s elsewhere.
A frontal system with abundant moisture is expected to travel across the Gulf of Mexico while dry air works into western Texas and northern Louisiana for mostly sunny skies. Some tropical moisture is expected to push onto the southern Texas and Louisiana coast with mostly cloudy skies and scattered showers and thunderstorms. High temperatures will be mostly in the 80’s except into the lower 90’s over extreme west Texas and the Rio Grande area.
… .”
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 61 37 78,381 2,075,324
For detailed information regarding specified regions, please refer to the whole report.
