Forest Fires in the United States
3 January 2000
THE 1999 WILDLAND FIRE SEASON SUMMARY (23 December 1999)
The following brief chapter is an one year extract of the 1999 Wildland Fire Season Summary by the US Forest Service Fire News. These information will be further updated as soon as new data are available.
Large fire activity began to increase in February in the southern part of the United States.
In April and May, fire season in the South and East became very active.
Fire activity in the western U.S. increased during the month of June; however, weather conditions kept activity lower than it might have been.
The fire season in early July showed a typical pattern of activity with fires occurring in western Colorado and the Great Basin. By the second week in July, there were fires in California, Idaho and the Northwest, as well as on the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Virginia. By mid-month, nearly a million acres had burned in Alaska, mostly in areas that required minimal suppression efforts. Cooler, wetter conditions brought an end to Alaska's fire season by the end of July.
In Nevada and Oregon significant fire activities happened in August. Also in August large fire activity was reported in Virginia, New York, Kentucky, Texas, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Oklahoma.
With little relief indicated in the long range weather forecast, large fires continued in the West into September.
The persistence of dry weather into October kept firefighters busy. Large fires were common, especially in California. Finally, towards the end of the month, increased precipitation brought relief to northern California and much of the West, East and South. However, southern California and parts of the Great Basin remained dry and susceptible to large fires.
Early November saw continued moderate fire activity across the country, with 22 states reporting large fires.
In December, Santa Ana winds pushed fires out of control in southern California just days before the Christmas holiday. Most of the fires were contained within a couple of days.Summarized can be mentioned, that the 1999 fire year will be remembered as a persistent season during which major resources were committed well into November. By 23 December 1999, 93,285 fires were reported to the National Interagency Coordination Center for a total of 2,290,165 hectares. The ten-year average is 74,233 fires for 1,231,732 ha.