The unusual fire patterns could place a strain on some federal firefighting resources, which are usually centered in the West over the summer.
#USHER BURN COVER UPDATE#
Further drought could develop in parts of the Midwest and Northeast, or with some luck, rain could restore the region over the coming months.īut recent rains that cooled the mid-Atlantic around the days of the summer solstice were not enough to bring the region out of moderate drought.įire analysts use data and forecasts from the National Forest Service and National Weather Service to make the wildfire forecast, which they update monthly to help direct firefighting resources. That’s highly unusual for this time of year, but Marien says conditions can change. And Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska have large areas of extreme drought. Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan’s lower peninsula are in moderate drought. A stretch of Maryland, including parts of seven counties and all of Howard County and Baltimore City, are classified as “severe drought,” as of Tuesday. The East Coast has primarily “abnormally dry” to “moderate drought” conditions.
Drought Monitor shows a map blotted in drought warnings from Virginia to Vermont, including Maryland, and over much of the Midwest. It’s abnormal for this early in the summer.”Ī June 22 update from the U.S. “There is quite a bit of drought either in development or in place … especially in the northeastern quarter of the US. That is what is exacerbating the situation,” said Steve Marien, a meteorologist and the Eastern Area Fire Weather Program Manager for the National Park Service. “It is unusually dry for early June in the Great Lakes and there are above-normal temperatures. The elevated fire danger this summer is due to the dry spring and forecasts for more hot, dry weather this summer. The regular wildfire seasons for these regions are early spring and early fall, before new growth has started in the spring and after the summer heat has dried out grasses and leaves that can fuel a fire.
In a standard year, the lush green days of midsummer would be a quiet season for wildfires in the Midwest and Northeast. That’s thanks, in part, to an unusually wet winter and record snowpack. The Fire Center’s recent summer outlook forecasts atypical wildfire activity also for the northern tier of the United States, but a reprieve across much of the West, which has in recent years been scorched by above-average fire activity. The entire state of Maryland was under a ‘code red’ for air quality on Thursday, according to the state’s Department of the Environment, meaning that members of the general public may experience health effects from the smoky air and sensitive groups may experience serious health effects. “This year it looks like there is potential for elevated fire conditions all the way into August, from Minnesota to Maine and down along the Eastern Seaboard.”Īs wildfires continued in Canada, Chicago, Detroit and other parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes experienced poor air quality in late June, and by the last days of June it had encompassed some East Coast cities as well. “The predominant threat looks to be the Northeast, which is not normal,” said Jim Karels, the fire director for the National Interagency Fire Center, the federal center in Boise, Idaho that coordinates the national response to wildland fires. In a summer of drought, smoke and haze, wildfires could flare up in unusual locations in the United States over the next few months - including New England and the Midwest, according to federal forecasters. Parts of the Midwest and East Coast have experienced poor air quality in June from wildfires in Canada. The Washington Monument stands in hazy smoke on June 8, 2023, in Washington, D.C.
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