Jan Wesner Childs
While millions of people in the U.S. suffer from the effects of Canada’s worst wildfire season on record, some of the same states where smoke has poured into face their own significant wildfire risk this summer.
An updated advisory issued Tuesday by the U.S. National Interagency Coordinating Center warns of “a very high to extreme risk of large catastrophic fires” for the Great Lakes region, specifically Northeastern Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin, and Michigan.
We talked to two experts from the U.S. Forest Service - fire analyst Allan Hepworth and air resource specialist Peter Lahm, about what all this means for people who live in affected areas.
“It could be a busy season for folks up there,” Hepworth said.
Hepworth was involved in issuing the advisory, which is aimed at alerting firefighters to potentially dangerous fire behavior. The advisory is built on the abundance and condition of what professionals call fire fuels - things like dry trees, grass and soil.
Much of the area covered by the advisory has already experienced hot dry weather, with many more weeks of summer to go. The advisory notes that June is typically the wettest month of the summer for the region but that there are rainfall deficits of more than 3 inches for some places.
“Because of the underlying drought conditions and other factors, fires, if they do start and they have things like topography or wind to support them being active, they can be very active and extreme and hazardous,” Hepworth said.
(MORE: How To Keep Pets Safe From Wildfire Smoke)
Additionally, a separate outlook from the NICC predicts above normal potential for significant wildfire activity in areas along the Canadian border from Minnesota through the tip of Maine.
All of that is bad news for people already choking on wildfire smoke in cities like Minneapolis, Detroit and Milwaukee.
“At its heart, it is absolutely a public health story,” Lahm said. “But what matters to public health most is, are you and I going to breathe it?”
That’s where smoke forecasts, air quality alerts and taking action to reduce health risk and fire risk come into play in keeping people safe.
(MORE: Why Are Heat Waves Getting Worse?)
As of Friday, wildfires in Canada had burned a record 31,000 square miles so far this year. Of 500 fires burning, about 230 were considered “out of control.”
Early hot, dry conditions that fueled the fires show no sign of letting up.
And, in the longer term, this hot smoky summer could be a sign of things to come.
“We have some documentation and there's research that really supports that we are getting longer wildfire seasons, they can start earlier and they can last longer,” Lahm said.
Weather.com reporter Jan Childs covers breaking news and features related to weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
No comments:
Post a Comment