Wildfires Plague Tinder Dry Western States

BOISE, Idaho, July 15, 2002 (ENS) - Hot, dry conditions which have fueled raging wildfires in several western states this summer, are expected to hang on through September, according to the latest seasonal outlook from NOAA's National Weather Service.

The East Coast will get a break from drought conditions that had people conserving water even during the winter. NOAA forecasters said today that the dry weather in the eastern states will slowly improve as summer unfolds.

Fires are often started by lightning. Here lightning touches ground in Wyoming's Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest June 27. (Photo by Tim Walsh courtesy National Wildfire Coordination Group)

Today across the West, 29 new large forest fires burning in 17 states, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise reports.

Firefighters say southern Nevada's first major wildfire of the season is burning out of control and has grown to nearly 350 acres. Lightning is blamed for sparking the Lost Cabin fire Sunday afternoon in a remote mountain area of the Humbolt-Toiyabe National Forest about 27 miles west of Las Vegas. Two small communities have been evacuated and aerial tankers are dropping fire retardant on the flames.

Two other fires in different sections of the Humbolt-Toiyabe forest are also burning out of control. A 5,000 acre fire 50 miles southeast of Ely has crossed the Nevada-Utah border. Crews and dozers are building fireline on the west flank and protecting threatened structures in Utah. Nine ranches in Utah were evacuated yesterday as firefighters battle steep terrain, high winds and continuous fuels.

A third fire 50 miles southeast of Fallon, Nevada in the same forest has charred 1,200 acres. It is about 10 percent contained by crews with dozers who are building firelines on the southeast and west flanks.

The total number of fires recorded this year to date is 48,113, slightly more than the 46,135 for 2001. But while the number of fires is only slightly higher, the number of acres of federal and private forest lands damaged by fire is nearly 3.5 million, a 37 percent increase over 2001 and more than double the 10 year average of 1.5 million.

At over 87,000 acress, the Rattle Fire near Moab, Utah is currently the largest fire in the nation. (Photo by John Lane courtesy U.S. Forest Service)

The two largest fires in the nation are located in Utah and Colorado. The larger of the two, covering 87,060 acres, is burning in Moab, Utah’s Rattle Fire Complex, currently just 40 percent contained. The second largest fire, at Missionary Ridge in Colorado’s San Juan National Forest, has destroyed 70,485 acres, but is now 98 percent contained.

Oregon currently has a dozen active large fires, more than any other state, covering nearly 95,000 acres. Eight of the 12 fires in that state show no sign of containment. Officials are evacuating communities and ranches in the path of all the fires and preparing firefighting strategies.

The largest of the fires Oregon covers 46,000 acres, in the Vale District located along the northeastern border with Idaho.

Wyoming is getting some firefighting help from the state of New York. Governor George Pataki today announced that New York is sending a team of 20 firefighters to Wyoming to help combat the wildfire burning in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, in the wilderness of the Grand Teton Mountains 12 miles west of Daniel, Wyoming.

"New York State's Forest Rangers are among the best in the nation at fighting wildfires and protecting the environment and they will provide invaluable assistance to the fire containment effort in Wyoming," Governor Pataki said.

But the Bridger-Teton fire is not the largest one in Wyoming. A 9,000 acre fire is blazing out of control across Yellowstone National Park 20 miles southeast of Mammoth. The fire has crossed Deep Creek and is approaching an area burned in 1988. "Crews spiked out on the southwest flank and are constructing and improving an anchor point on the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone," said fire officials. Helitankers were successful on the west flank, holding the fire on the east side of the Yellowstone River, officials said.

The fire is located six miles east of Mt. Washburn on the east side of Yellowstone River. At present there is no threat to any of the developed areas in the park, and all roads, entrance stations, and visitor services remain open..

Much of the forest acreage being burned usually acts as watersheds for reservoirs which may be contaminated by erosion, according to new research.

John Gartner, a scientist at Colorado University’s Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, is conducting an extensive study of the effects of the massive Colorado fires to learn more about erosion, flooding and mitigation techniques.

Research has shown that as much as 100 times more erosion can occur after fires, causing damaging floods and choking freshwater ecosystems and hydroelectric power generators with sediment and debris.

Gartner said, "The magnitude of erosion depends on how much heavy rain we receive before the grasses and shrubs reestablish. Native plants are especially important for re-vegetation, because they are adapted to flourish after wildfires."

Some species may benefit from excess sediment such as salmons that need gravel for spawning grounds, and some types of vegetation thrive after a disturbance. Gartner said, "Some species may initially be decimated by a sediment laden flood, only to thrive later when they re-colonize the area. This complexity of responses is essential for healthy ecosystems, but also difficult to understand and manage."

Flooding and debris slides on steep mountain slopes are other dangerous consequences of wildfire. In burned areas, the chance for flooding multiplies with erosion because there is no vegetation to protect the soil and slow the overland flow of water from hill slopes to streams.

The Rodeo-Chediski fire burned together from two smaller, separate fires. (Photo courtesy Arizona Dept. of Environmental Quality)

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service, is collecting air quality data in the areas surrounding the Rodeo-Chediski fires. Monitors have been set up in Holbrook, Show Low, Snowflake, and St. Johns to collect data on fine particulate matter - less than 2.5 microns in size. These monitors collect fine particulate data continuously and record hourly averages so people with respiratory problems can protect themselves from lung damage caused by these fine particles.

Recent record high temperatures helped stoke the flames of wildfires in California, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas so far this year. "Prolonged drought, coupled with high temperatures, and strong winds, spell fire danger anywhere," said Jones, NOAA's climate expert.

Although late season snowfall in parts of Montana has improved the drought status somewhat, serious drought problems persist. NOAA forecasters are expecting below-normal rainfall throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana, northern Nevada and northern California.

Along the East Coast, near average to above average rainfall helped bring drought relief to major metropolitan areas from Washington, DC, to Boston, Mass, during the spring, according to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.

Reservoir levels climbed as seasonal rainfall was above average following five consecutive months - October through February - of below average precipitation in the Northeast.

Jim Laver, director of NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, said, "Despite the rain, drought conditions still exist in the East, especially in the Southeast where the real focus is now. The precipitation made a dent in the drought, especially across the Appalachians and Northeast, but as a whole, the East is not out of the woods yet," Laver said.

NOAA is unveiling a new fire detector from space that the firefighters can add to their arsenal. NOAA's Satellite and Data Service has developed a new technique using data from its geostationary satellites to automatically detect wildfires and relay real time satellite imagery to fire managers and weather and climate scientists.

Relayed every 30 minutes, the satellite images are useful in showing the progress of fast growing fires and in finding fires in remote areas.

The technique was developed by researchers at NOAA and the University of Wisconsin Space Science and Engineering Center in Madison, Wisconsin. It is expected to be deployed and fully operational by September.