Regional Variations in Drying Wood

[wooduser]

<<Cut split and stacked outside in Texas for 18 months may be ok. No doubt one of the better climates for seasoning wood in the US.

How many days per year do you need to fire up the stove? 2 or 3?

Sorry, couldn't help myself.


This is a humorous post about a serious subject: regional variations in how long it takes to dry firewood before it can be used.

The thread in question had posters offering the standard advice that oak needs to be dried for three years before using,,,,, to a person who plans to burn oak in Texas.

What ABOUT the variations in climate that presumably affect how long it takes wood to dry? I haven't seen any indication that such variations are recognized by the wood burning community. Perhaps they should be.

Gardeners have maps of the United States with a half different climatological categories recognized as being suitable for varying kinds of plants. Is a similar map needed to chart the varying lengths of time it takes to dry wood around the country?

 

[begreen]

Regional variations are just one of many factors. Weather variations (wet summer vs drought summer), wood species (wide variation here), stacking orientation + prevailing winds and top protection, etc.. For example, lowland spruce vs high mountain spruce are completely different animals and there are 90 different varieties of oak native to the US. Doug fir, in an open-sided shed has been drying to <20% for us in about 6 months due to our recent drought summers.

 

[Sawset]

Average RH and rainfall, as well as climate related local species, would mean a number of variables to consider. You would almost need to pick one, and correlate to the others. I would bet in general though, the rainfall map would be a more solid indicator than any. Across species, drying methods, individual locations, if those were held constant, then areas of low rainfall I would think would on average have reduced drying times.

 

[EPS]

In Northern New England it is very muggy in the summer and dry in the winter. Thankfully it also tends to wicked windy in fall and spring, so all things considered, drying wood takes about 9 months for it to be useable (not perfectly bone dry, but useable).

Also, writing this post makes me wonder why I live here.

 

[jatoxico]

Regional variation is discussed regularly here. The timber industry has taken wood drying costs and efficiency pretty seriously as you might expect since poor practice can result is lost product.

Here is more than you need to know...and no, wood doesn't dry much in winter.

 

[FTG-05]

Given all the rain we've had around here the last two weeks, if it wasn't for my woodsheds, my wood wouldn't be dry for 5-6 years.

I'm waaaaay behind in this year's processing. Another week of rain and/or cold temps forecasted for this week. Again.