Forest Fires in the United States: 17 December 1999
Forest Fires in the United States
17 December 1999
Several active fire signals were recorded by OSEI with the NOAA-14 POES AVHRR HRPT satellite on 16 December 1999 in southeastern United States.
Fig. 1. The image shows heat signatures and a few smoke plumes from areas of fire burning in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
(Source: NOAA http://www.osei.noaa.gov/)
The Wildland Fire Assessment System is a contribution of “The Fire Behavior Research Work Unit”, Missoula (Montana USA) and submits a fire danger map, where the fire danger for the United States is forecasted.
Fig. 2. Fire Danger Forecast Map for 17 December 1999
(Source: Fire Behavior Research Work Unit, Missoula)
According to the INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SITUATION REPORT, as of 10 December 1999, the fire situation in the United States can be summarized by following basic fire data.
FIRES
YEAR-TO-DATE HECTARES
YEAR-TO-DATE 92,651 2,279,207
For detailed information regarding specified regions, please refer to the whole report.
The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reports its Wildland Fire Update every Friday unless significant activity occurs.
A Four-Year Wildland Fire Comparison Statistic shows the number and the area of wildland fires from 1996 to 1999.
Tab. 1. Wildland Fire Comparison Statistic of the last four years (Source: NIFC)
As of 3 Dec. 1999 Number of Wildland Fires Number of hectares 1999 92,651 2,279,207 1998 75,913 922,101 1997 64,943 1,148,671 1996 94,407 2,431,614
The preliminary summary report of the National Interagency Fire Center provides also a map of the Top Ten Largest Fires in the current fire season 1999. This summary will be further updated with a final 1999 season report by the end of this year.
