10 August 2015, Washington Post, A stunning five million acres have now burned in Alaskan wildfires this year. Last month, wildfire watchers were astounded as terrifying wildfires raged across the state of Alaska. Sometimes the records would come in with 300,000 or more new acres burned in a single day. It seemed inevitable that the 2015 wildfire season would quickly catch up with and then surpass the all-time record year, 2004, when 6,590,140 acres burned. But then the weather shifted. Rains moved in, and satellite analysts downsized their size estimates of some fires. Instead of racing forward, the fire acreage numbers slowed or even stopped their increase. Only recently have they started to tick back up again. Nonetheless, according to the latest report Tuesday from the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, Alaska fires have now consumed 5,098,829.9 acres in 2015. That’s about five-sixths of the total acreage consumed by wildfires anywhere in America this year —currently, 6,224,545 acres. It’s also enough to put the 2015 Alaska wildfire season ahead of what was previously the second-place year — 1957, with 5,049,661 acres burned, according to the Alaska Division of Forestry. [Alaska’s terrifying wildfire season and what it says about climate change] So will 2015 overtake 2004 and set a new record for the most acres burned? A seasonal wildfire outlook from the National Interagency Fire Center shows a big red splotch across Alaska for the month of August — a forecast of areas where conditions would be favorable for increased wildfire activity. “The volume of active fires on the landscape should continue to produce acreage gains through August,” the agency notes. As of Tuesday, 238 fires were still burning across the state. Read More here
Tag Archives: Bushfire
1 August 2015, Climate Network News, Wildfire threat spreads across warming world. As climate change warms the world vegetation dries, rainfall patterns waver and the threat of wildfire spreads. Wildfire – nature’s way of turning fallen vegetation into the next season’s nutrients – is a growing hazard. In the last 35 years, the wildfire season has grown longer by a fifth, and wildfire is now a threat to one fourth of all the plant-covered land on the planet. US researchers report in Nature Communications that since 1970 the number of days without rain has increased by well over one day every decade. William Jolly of the US Forest Service in Missoula, Montana and colleagues say they examined the fire season worldwide for the study period, taking into consideration all the factors that are used to calculate fire hazard: wind, humidity and temperature, as well as rainfall levels. They found that the combined changes in the surface weather have meant that the fire season has increased so far by 18.7%. Worldwide, wildfires sear, scorch or incinerate about 350 million hectares of ground cover every year. Changes in the rainfall patterns were a factor, with the number of rain-free days increasing by 1.31 days per decade. The season of smoke and cinders and smouldering stumps had been extended almost everywhere. Read More here
20 July 2015, Science Daily, Changing climate lengthens forest fire season: Over a 35-year period, the length of forest fire seasons worldwide increased by 18.7 percent due to more rain-free days and hotter temperatures, according to research. The study examined weather data from 1979 through 2013 to determine how a changing climate impacts forest ecosystems. Over a 35-year period, the length of forest fire seasons worldwide increased by 18.7 percent due to more rain-free days and hotter temperatures, according to South Dakota State University professor Mark Cochrane, a senior scientist at the Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence. The wildfire expert is part of a team of researchers led by W. Matt Jolly of the U.S. Forest Service Fire Science Laboratory that examined weather data from 1979 through 2013 to determine how a changing climate impacts forest ecosystems. “For things to burn, they have to have the proper conditions,” he explained. Four independent environmental factors increase the likelihood of wildfires — hotter temperatures, decreased relative humidity, more rain-free days and higher wind speeds. The researchers combined fire danger indexes from the United States, Canada and Australia with three global climate databases to create what Cochrane calls “an ensemble model.” They looked at the length of time and areas where conditions were conducive to fires. Their findings are published in Nature Communications. “Ecosystems are designed to withstand the normal climate situation, but we suspect that things aren’t normal anymore,” Cochrane said. On all the forested continents, except Australia, the fire seasons are getting longer, Cochrane explained. South America had the largest increase — 33 days in 35 years. In addition, the area affected by the longer fire season has doubled. Read More here
26 June 2015, CBS, California drought fueling wildfire flames: California firefighters are battling a new wildfire. The Sterling fire broke out Thursday in the San Bernardino Mountains, where firefighters have been battling flames for over a week. It has already burned at least 100 acres. It’s one of the more than 2,500 fires that have broken out in California so far this year, and gusty winds and drought conditions are fueling the flames. New data show the drought is designated as “extreme” or “exceptional” in more than 70 percent of California. That gives firefighters a new obstacle this year: searching for water.
Flying over the parched hills of Southern California, it’s clear how four years of drought has taken its toll, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone. “Normally at this time of year, we’d be seeing green and wildflowers as far as we can see. But because of the drought, we’re seeing brown, dry fuel that has no moisture in it at all,” Orange County fire Capt. Dave Lopez said. Lopez pointed to hills where a small fire could quickly grow into an inferno. The landscape is so dry, fires burn hotter and spread faster, making early attack from the air essential. But just as the drought has made the landscape flammable, it’s also dried up many of the water sources firefighters depend on to do their job. Read More here