Forest Fires in Southern United States: 21 December 1998

Forest Wildfires  and Prescribed Burning in the Southern United States of America

21 December 1998

Several active fire signals and smoke plumes are recorded by OSEI with the NOAA AVHRR Sensor on 18 December 1998.

Fig.1. NOAA image of the vegetation fires in Florida 18 December 1998
(Source: NOAA http://www.osei.noaa.gov/)
(see footnote at the end of this daily update)

LAST NATIONAL INTERAGENCY COORDINATION CENTER SITUATION REPORT (18 December 1998)
http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.html

CURRENT SITUATION:
Minor fire activity occurred last week in the Southern Area and Southern California.

OUTLOOK:
Southern California will be mostly sunny with a dry cold front moving into the area on Sunday. Sunday and Monday will be partly cloudy, much cooler and breezy with cold Santa Ana winds possible Tuesday and Wednesday. Temperatures in the 70’s (21°C) and lower 80’s (26°C) are expected over the weekend, with
highs in the 60’s (15°C) for the remainder of the week.

Florida will see warm temperatures in the 70’s  (21°C) and 80’s (26°C) over the weekend with a dry cold front moving in on Tuesday and Wednesday. The remainder of the week will be partly cloudy, cooler and breezy with scattered showers.

An excellent Wildfire Season Forecast for Florida can be seen under this link: 1998-1999 Florida Wildfire Season Forecast

Footnote
Some remarks to the NOAA AVHRR satellite imagery: The “hotspots” detected in the Southeast most likely are all prescribed management fires since no wildfires are reported at the time of editing the current GFMC website. At this time of the year the weather favours prescribed burning operations. For more information on the extent of prescribed burning in the U.S.A. please visit the last issue of International Forest Fire News.