Forest Fires in the United States: 23 August 1999
Forest Fires in the United States
23 August 1999
The National Interagency Fire Center reported on 20 August 1999 that 13 large fires burning in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming for a total of 20,002 acres (8,093 ha). The areas of fire are shown in the large fire map below. Regarding to the Wildland Fire Update of the above mentioned Center, extreme fire conditions were observed in Kentucky, Virginia and Texas yesterday, as two new large fires were reported from Virginia and Texas. Elsewhere in the West new large fires were reported from Utah, Nevada, Oregon and Wyoming.
Two large fires in California continue to burn in Yosemite National Park and nearby Stanislaus National Forest, which are being managed to accomplish resource objectives. These are naturally ignited fires that are managed to accomplish specific resource benefits such as improving wildlife habitat or reducing hazardous fuel accumulations.
Fig. 1. Large Wildland Fires in the United States, 20 August 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, 23 August 1999
(Source: BLM – Alaska Fire Service )
According the INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SITUATION REPORT the current situation for 22 August 1999 can be quoted as follows:
“…
CURRENT SITUATION:
Moderate initial attack activity and new large fires were reported in the Southern, Northwest, Western Great Basin and Southern California areas. Good progress was achieved on large fires in the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain areas. The National Interagency Coordination Center mobilized engines, helicopters, airtankers, crews and miscellaneous overhead. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in Oregon, California, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, South Dakota and Texas.
OUTLOOK:
“…
Monsoonal moisture will continue over the Four Corners area causing scattered thunderstorms across most of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, eastern Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. California, Oregon and Washington will have coastal low clouds, fog and drizzle with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the northern mountains, otherwise it will be sunny in the western U.S. High temperatures will change little with 60’s to 70’s along the coast, 80’s to 90’s inland and in the mountains and up to 112 in the deserts.
A stationery front will extend from southwest Texas and along the Gulf Coast and into North Carolina. Minimum relative humidities of 45 to 55 percent will be found throughout Virginia. High temperatures will be in the mid 80’s.
…”
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 188 4,230 67,000 1,592,453
For detailed information regarding specified regions, please refer to the whole report.
