The Year Of The Wildfires Continues: Carolinas Ablaze Again

Photo from the South Carolina Forestry Commission
shows a large fire burning on a mountain in western
South Carolina over the weekend. 

So far, this has been a year of awful wildfires. 

And we haven't even come close to peak season for this type of thing yet. 

Of course, we know about the horrible wildfires in California this past January that claimed at least 29 lives and caused billions of dollars in damage around Los Angeles.

Wildfires in Oklahoma and surrounding states claimed perhaps 400 homes during the middle of March

The Carolinas saw big wildfires earlier this month. Meanwhile, smaller but still dangerous brush fires have hit several Eastern states.

The latest problem is that the Carolinas are burning again. 

Western North Carolina is in the midsts of its peak wildfire season, which hits just before the hills and mountains turn green in the spring. 

This year is much worse than usual. 

There have been new evacuations because of these fires.  At least one home and two other structures have been destroyed in the fires, along with some cars and other property.  

The area most affected by the latest North Carolina wildfires are hitting an area devastated by Hurricane Helene last fall. Since that apocalyptic flood from Hurricane Helene last September, it really hasn't rained much in the Carolinas. 

Wreckage from that fire might be making the blazes worse and more challenging. Countless fallen trees and branches from that storm are drying out, adding potential fuel to those fires. 

That storm debris is also making things more dangerous for people needing to evacuate from the western North Carolina fires and the people fighting those blazes.  

Per CBS:

"It's to just the high winds, the low humidity, the steep terrain, but they're also dealing with storm debris that's blocking UTV trails, regular roads and them just getting in on foot because we have so many trees down,' Kellie Cannon, a spokesperson for Polk County told CBS affiliate WSPA."

Most of the western North Carolina fires were nowhere near containment as of Monday evening. 

Large fires were burning in western South Carolina, too, prompting evacuations. Another large fire in South Florida burned through 26,000 acres, and closed roads between southwest Florida and the Keys. 

Yet another large wildfire over the weekend in southern New Jersey briefly threatened homes. That part of New Jersey is now experiencing the most intense part of a drought that extends through much of the eastern U.S 

The Southeast, including the fire zones in the Carolinas, are expected to have dry, occasionally windy weather all week, which will keep the existing fires going and contribute to the fast spread of any new fires that could start. 

There is a little good news. But not much. Some rain is in the forecast for North and South Carolina toward Sunday and Monday, but it looks like the heaviest rain will pass to the west of the Appalachians in that region instead of thoroughly soaking the Carolina wildfire zone. 

Also, some rain is expected later this week in parts of western Texas and Oklahoma hit by the worst of the wildfires this month. But once again, the heaviest rain is expected to miss New Mexico, the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles,  and western Kansas, which need it the most.  

The bigger wildfires will shift to the West this summer. Drought condition continue in the Southwest and sections of the Rockies, so we can probably expect more big blazes in the western U.S. this summer and autumn.

VERMONT EFFECTS

It's the spring fire season here in Vermont, too and that state of affairs will last probably through April on dry weather days.

We've already had two or three days with high fire danger. So far, though, through Monday, Vermont has only seen five brush fires which combine have only burned just under an acre of land. So far, no crisis here.  

Damp weather over the the next several days should mostly keep fire danger here in Vermont to a reasonable level. There's also the possibility of a soaking storm Sunday and Monday, which would be good. 

However, with the dead weeds and stuff still prominent from last year, it would only take a couple days of dry, sunny, windy weather to set off another period of higher fire risk. Thankfully, so far at least, it doesn't look like Vermont will have the kind of long dry spell which would create the conditions for larger fires like those in the Carolinas.  

Videos: 

A good NBC News overview of the fires. Click on this link to view, or if you see the video below, click on that. 

To give you an idea how dry it is in the Carolinas, here's a video of how a small spark led to a fire that instantaneously spread across a South Carolina lawn. Looks like the landscape crew was able to put it out before it spread to houses. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.