As the peak of summer approaches, drought conditions become alarmingly extended, and extended triple digit heat cripples and crunches native grasses, and convective storms rage dry lightning, it’s crucial that ranchers equip themselves with the knowledge and tools to combat any extreme conditions, namely summer wildfire season. Fire weather days are a mix of low humidity, strong winds and high temperatures. The number of these days has increased in the lower 48 states in the past 50 years alone.
Climate Central, a nonprofit climate science research organization found that wildfire seasons are getting longer and more intense. The upper trend in fire weather days is important as it demonstrates how climate change is altering risk levels at the local and regional levels. Additionally, Dr. Donovan from the University of Florida also found that large wildfire (>400 ha) regime characteristics over a 30 year period across the Great Plains have changed dramatically:
- The average number of large wildfires increased from 33.4 ± 5.6 per year from 1985 to 1994 to 116.8 ± 28.8 wildfires per year from 2005 to 2014.
- Total area burned by large wildfires increased 400%.
- Over half the ecoregions had greater than a 70% probability of a large wildfire occurring in the last decade.
With unpredictable and extreme triple digit heat, high winds, low relative humidity, and limited rainfall, fuel and soil moisture becomes limited creating intense conditions primed for high-energy wildfire behavior. These conditions lead to more frequent and larger fires that become more difficult to manage and spread Volunteer resources thin across expansive rangeland country.
Texas has experienced some of the greatest increases in fire weather days along with Southern California and New Mexico. Some areas in these states are seeing around two more months of fire weather compared to half a century ago.
While some parts of the United States have experienced a decline in the frequency of fire weather days, it is safe to say that climate change is changing up wildfire risks across the country.
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