Forest Fires in the United States: 13 September 1999
Forest Fires in the United States
13 September 1999
The National Interagency Fire Center reported two new large fires from California and Nevada on 10 September 1999. Although wildland fire activity is moderate, extreme fire conditions exist in the Northwest, Great Basin, California, South Dakota and in some southeastern states including Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.
Fire Weather Outlook
There is a slight chance for thunderstorms in northeast Califonia and Nevada, and scattered thunderstorms in Wyoming, Utah and Montana today. Strong winds from the east are expected in Oregon tonight and tomorrow, with warming temperatures during the next few days in Oregon and Washington.
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Fig. 1. Large Wildland Fires in the United States, 10 September 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, 12 September 1999
(Source: BLM – Alaska Fire Service )
According the INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SITUATION REPORT the current situation for 12 September 1999 can be quoted as follows:
“…
CURRENT SITUATION
Initial attack activity was minimal. New large fire activity was reported in the Great Basin, Northwest and Southern Areas. Large fire activity continued in California, and the Great Basin Areas. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming, Indiana, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas.
OUTLOOK:
The low pressure currently along the west coast will produce strong easterly winds and low relative humidities as high pressure builds in behind it. A cold front moving through Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico will produce gusty northwest winds and cooler temperatures along with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Montana and Wyoming will become dry with cooler temperatures and gusty northwest winds. The Northwest will have cooler and more stable air.
… .”
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 148 3,255 72,480 1,869,406
For detailed information regarding specified regions, please refer to the whole report.
