Wildland Fire Update
The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) based in Boise (Idaho) provides key information on current
wildland fire situations, related information and background materials. The following
information is updated daily and can be accessed directly:
- State-by-State daily and year-to-date summary of fire activities
http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html
- Year-to-date State-by-State total number of wildland fires and area
burned (table)
http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfnmap.html
- Daily locations of large fires (map)
http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/firemap.html
The National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) provides daily situation reports. These reports include:
- Incident Management Situation Reports (fires and area burned reported to NICC). The files include current, previous and archived reports
- Prescribed Fire and Wildland Fire Use (year-to-date fires and area burned reported to
NICC, posted weekly on Monday mornings)
http://www.nifc.gov/news/RXWFUYTD.htm
Archived NICC Incident Management Reports (recent daily reports and archived daily reports 1994-1997) are provided by the Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI)
Fire Weather & Fire Danger InformationThe Wildland Fire Assessment System (WFAS) is a contribution of "The Fire Behavior Research Work Unit", Missoula (Montana USA). The broad area component of the Wildland Fire Assessment System (WFAS) generates maps of selected fire weather and fire danger components.
Fire Danger (Potential) is a normalized adjective rating class across different fuel models and station locations. It is based on information provided by local station managers about the primary fuel model, fire danger index selected to reflect staffing level, and climatological class breakpoints. Low danger (Class 1) is green and extreme potential (Class 5) is red.
 |
 |
Fire danger maps for the United States for 07
July 2002 (observation time) and 08 July 2002 (forecast)
(Source: WAFS)
Dead fuel moisture responds solely to ambient environmental conditions and is critical in determining fire potential. Dead fuel moistures are classed by timelag.
|
|
|
10-HR Fuel Moisture |
100-HR Fuel Moisture |
1000-HR Fuel Moisture |
Fuel moisture maps for conterminous US, 07
July 2002
(Source: WAFS)
The Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) is a soil/duff drought index. Factors in the index are maximum daily temperature, daily precipitation, antecedent precipitation, and annual precipitation. The index ranges from 0 (no drought) to 800 (extreme drought) (details).
Keetch-Byram Drought Index Maps for conterminous US, 07 July 2002
(Source: WAFS)
The TOMS
Global Aerosol Hot Spots Page provides screened close-ups of regions
with active fires and smoke emissions, displayed in the following table.
 |
 |
 |
| 23 June 2002 | 24 June 2002 | 25 June 2002 |
 |
 |
 |
| 26 June 2002 | 27 June 2002 | 28 June 2002 |
 |
 |
 |
| 29 June 2002 | 30 June 2002 | 01 July 2002 |
 |
 |
 |
| 02 July 2002 | 03 July 2002 | 04 July 2002 |
Smoke over the US.
(Source: TOMS
Global Aerosol Hot Spots Page)
For more information on the fires in Quebec, Canada, causing smoke-haze in parts of the US, please refer to the updated country report for Canada (08 July 2002) in the section Current & Archived Significant Global Fire Events and Fire Season Summaries.
For more information on the recent fire situation in the US see: Recent
Media Highlights on Fire, Policies, and Politics ,
especially several articles referring to the situation in Arizona.
Long-range weather forecasts
National Weather Service
Long-range, 30-day weather forecasts are predicting above-normal temperatures for the southern tier of states from southern California to Florida and throughout the Midwest (see 30 and 90-day forecast maps).
30 and 90-day temperature and precipitation forecast maps (June
2002 and June to August 2002)
(Source: National Weather
Service)
For further information see: Wildfire
Season Forecast of the Florida Division of Forestry
For further information you may also see to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
For background information on the Southern Area see the Edited Version of the Southern Area Intelligence Briefing Paper for 22 April 2001.