This year’s U.S. wildfire season has been extremely active: Twenty-five percent more acres have burned in 2018, beating the 10-year average.
This year’s U.S. wildfire season has been extremely active: Twenty-five percent more acres have burned in 2018, beating the 10-year average. It has been especially devastating for California — the two largest wildfires in state history have occurred in the last eight months.
And it isn’t over yet: In mid-August, we entered peak wildfire season.
We asked fire weather forecaster Nick Nauslar of NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center about the close relationship between weather and wildfire and how NOAA meteorologists create the timely forecasts that help guide firefighters on the ground:
Q: What does the term fire weather mean?
Nick Nauslar: Well, the easy answer is: Any sort of weather that ignites and/or helps spread fire. Stronger winds; low, relative humidity; unstable atmospheric conditions; and thunderstorms all fall under the umbrella of fire weather.
Continue reading at NOAA.
Image via NOAA.
