Fire Risk When Vermont Ground So Soggy Underfoot? You Bet!

Dry brush Tuesday in the area behind my St. Albans,
Vermont house.  This is the time of year to be 
very careful with fire and matches, because brush
and wildfires can easily start. Even if it 
just rained a couple days ago 

It was still squishy underfoot Tuesday evening as I cleaned up storm damage on my St. Albans, Vermont property. 

Not exactly mud season, but definitely damp. 

So, why am I not seeking a burn permit to get rid of all the trees and branches that fell on my property during two recent storms?

Because despite the mud, it's fire season in Vermont. 

It's the most likely season for brush and wildfires to break out around here.  It hasn't really greened up yet. so there's all that dried up plant debris from last year. The trees aren't leafed out, either, so the strong spring sun can blast through to the ground and dry things up quickly.

Plus, there's a particular weather pattern this time of year that can lead to fire weather. 

Remember that remarkably dry air we were so fortunate to have back on April 8, eclipse day? The weather that kept all but decorative high cloudiness out of the way?

That's what we tend to get this time of year. 

High pressure systems with fair, dry weather often make their way into New England from Canada. At least in southern Canada, much of the snow is gone buy now. And there's no leaves on the trees to add moisture to the air via transpiration. 

So those fair weather systems are often bone dry. Arid.  Even if it's been rainy, a day or two of that super dry air can suck the moisture out of the dead weeds and plants and such from last year.  Plus, as these high pressure systems approach, they often compete with a departing storm up in the Canadian Maritimes. That causes dry, gusty erratic winds. 

Some springs are more fire prone than others. We can go long stretches - a week or more - without any rain and plenty of super dry air. That's when you most often see fires erupting. 

So far this year, showers have been pretty frequent, which is helping to prevent a lot of fire problems.  Over the next few days, wet weather systems will try to work in from the west, but will tend to fall apart as they reach Vermont. 

Which actually will work out to be good compromise. Scattered light showers will keep things damp. But there will be no day long, heavy rains to keep us indoors. We can still go outdoors and do stuff. 

Fire season in Vermont is still young, so we still might have long stretches of dry weather going well into May.  The risk of fire goes down somewhat, but definitely does not disappear once things really green up later this spring. 

As far as my storm debris goes, I'm stashing it in a far corner of my property for now. Next winter, when there's snow on the ground is when I'll make all that mess into a nice, satisfying bonfire.