This year marks something new, sparked by the National Weather Service in State College March 4-8 is Fire Weather Awareness Week here in Pennsylvania.
You might be wondering, why is fire weather so important and
why does it get a weeklong awareness event?
Fuel itself won’t just burn, there are a whole bunch of
interconnected factors that will make conditions conducive to wildfires.
Weather is the most variable element when anticipating fire behavior. The basic climate and weather
factors temperature, atmospheric moisture, and wind patterns affect the fuel
conditions and the tendency for fire start and spread.
We have done
a deep dive into this in our post about Pennsylvania having a bimodal fire
season, but here is a quick recap of what our fire seasons look like: our fire
activity is at maximum in spring and fall, building warmth and dormant fine
fuels in spring, leaf-off in fall, our season can extend well into summer if
the jet stream remains active and brings windy or dry events that are preceded
by dry conditions of two weeks or more (which happened last year), we also have
little to no activity in winter months.
Some
critical fire weather events to look out for are post-cold frontals, pre-cold
frontal southwest wind cases, and Bermuda highs. Weather events that can slow
or stop fire are cold frontal passage, stationary fronts, and closed lows.
Typically, we participate in Wildfire Prevention Week, so
come along with us as we try out this new event!
No comments:
Post a Comment