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A Brief Overview of the Southern United States Fire Situation January - July 1998

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Unusually wet conditions associated with El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) this past winter had a significant negative impact on prescribed burning operations. In spite of the high rainfall, natural resource managers in Florida still succeeded in treating more than 500,000 acres during the first three months of 1998. (In a typical year about 2,000,000 acres are treated, about 75-80% during this time period.) Many of these bums were, however, more patchy and consumed less fuel than usual because of high dead-fuel moistures. Average ambient tempera- were also higher than normal which resulted in a significantly earlier spring green-up and increased growth of the herbaceous groundcover and woody understorey. Many of these planned dormant-season bums were thus actually conducted during the transition period or early growing-season. This in turn, pushed planned growing-season bums back further into the spring.

Citation

Wade, Dale D. 1998. A Brief Overview of the Southern United States Fire Situation January - July 1998. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Forest Fire News, No. 19, September 1998
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/1543