American Southwest Entering Summer with Extraordinary Fire Danger

Michael Tobis

Michael Tobis, editor-in-chief of Planet3.0 and site cofounder, has always been interested in the interface between science and public policy. He holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences where he developed a 3-D ocean model on a custom computing platform. He has been involved in sustainability conversations on the internet since 1992, has been a web software developer since 2000, and has been posting sustainability articles on the web since 2007.

fd_class

The region is predicted to have above 30-year normal temperatures this summer; the precipitation outlook is mostly neutral but a bit unfavorable in the corner closest to Texas. Of course this is an area that is normally dry and has very sporadic rainfall.

UPDATE: All-time heat records are at risk in Arizona, Nevada and the California desert region over the next week.

Comments:

What about all the green areas?

They are okay. But I venture most of the map should be green. Yellow is dry enough that campfires are forbidden.

The formal definition of "extreme" fire danger boils down to "if a fire gets started it will be too hot to put out"

Extreme (E):
Fires start quickly, spread furiously, and burn intensely. All fires are
potentially serious. Development into high intensity burning will usually
be faster and occur from smaller fires than in the very high fire danger
class. Direct attack is rarely possible and may be dangerous except
immediately after ignition. Fires that develop headway in heavy slash or
conifer stands may be unmanageable while the extreme burning
conditions last. Under these circumstances the only effective and safe
control actions are on the flanks until the weather changes or the fuel
loading decreases.

"Extreme" should be very rare, don't you think?

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