2021 Forest Fire Season

[ABMax24]

We've had a quiet start to the fire season so far this year, but it's looking like that is going to change, we haven't had any appreciable precipitation in over 2 weeks and we'll be well into July before we are expected to get more. We are approaching extreme levels on the forest fire build up index, and it will only go higher as the days go by.

That's us in the center of the red:



What is everyone else seeing this year? California seems to be surprising slow for fires for a change.

 

[Nealm66]

Finally drying out here. Man it was a wet may-June.

 

[begreen]

It has been dry and very hot in the west. Some fires are happening. One in the Big Sur area is still uncontrolled. Often. they don't become newsworthy until they threaten populated areas. Currently, Arizona leads with daily temps well over 100 and 14 major fires. There are 7 currently in CA.

Western WA is on edge. We normally escape serious wildfire this side of the Cascades, but this year's rainfall has been lower and the temps are getting hotter. We are in for several days of 90s locally by next weekend, with temps in the 100s in several places in the west of the state. This will be record-breaking and dangerous for wildfires.

 

[peakbagger]

Its dry (relative to my area) in northern NH where the local White Mountain National Forest is nicknamed by fire crews as the "asbestos national forest"). The area is in listed as in drought conditions. Streams and rivers are low and my ground water well has dropped significantly about 2 months earlier than usual.

Welcome to the new normal

 

[MTASH]

Very dry in my locality, precipitation has been sparse this spring. A few fires going already and will surely get worse in July/August with hotter temps and low precipitation.

 

[begreen]

The heat is not just here. Siberia is scorching.

Ground Temperatures Hit 118 Degrees in the Arctic Circle

Newly published satellite imagery shows the ground temperature in at least one location in Siberia topped 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) going into the year’s longest day. It’s hot Siberia summer, and it certainly won’t be the last.

gizmodo.com

 

[ABMax24]

We just can't seem to get a break, still no significant rainfail predicted in the next 2 weeks, and we are likely to set record high temperatures for the next week. Tuesday is supposed to hit 37c, and our all time record is 35.6c.

The farmers are also going to have a tough year, a month without rainfall this time of year really stunts growth, Canola is is going to take this especially hard.

Surprisingly we don't have many active forest fires, but I suspect that will change as people venture out into the forest this weekend to enjoy the hot weather.

 

[Sawset]

It's been raining here for the last week. Drizzled all day today. But really that would be the first for about a month. Where I'm at up here, the soil is a glacial mix of clay/gravel, dredged up back in the day from a nearby glacial lake bottom. When soil moisture is high, push a shovel, and it will dive right in. Like frosting. Dry - it took me 1/2 hour to take an iron spade (like they use to chop ice for fishing holes) and break/pick/scoop/ my way down 20" to set a cedar post. I would say it's still dry around here.

 

[ABMax24]

We still haven't got any rain since I first posted this, there is a chance of thunderstorms this weekend, but it's been so dry the rain likely won't hit the ground, but the lightening will. There are fires burning to the west of us in BC, the smoke has set in the last couple days, to the point the sun is just a very dim orange glow right now.

Hopefully we get some rain soon, we've been very lucky not to have any fires start close to the city. The southeast corner of Alberta is even drier than we are, the farmers there are in dire straits, some are saying they won't even be pulling out the combines this year, there will be nothing to harvest.

 

[begreen]

23 days so far and no rain in sight. Not a record, we set that in 2017 I think.

 

[ABMax24]

Well this is getting old, we've had smoke rolling through on and off for the last 2 months. Even had ash falling from the sky again last night. It cleared of briefly first thing this morning, now we are back to heavy smoke.

I'm ready for either a bunch of rain or winter.

 

[begreen]

Yes, we are getting a couple days of smoke and unhealthy air coming in from the BC wildfires. The one saving grace was that it kept temps from going to the high 90s yesterday by filtering out the sun.