By Meteorologist Paul Dorian – Arcfield – arcfieldweather.com
2023 US Wildfire Season
The news has been quite good this year with respect to the total number of acres burned on US soil due to wildfire activity. In fact, the total acreage burned this year is under 3 million (through 12/18) which is far below the 10-year average of nearly 7 million from 2013-2022 and the lowest since 1998.
One of the main contributing factors to the down year in overall US wildfire activity is the fact that it has been a mild year in California with the number of burned acres under 390,000 (as of 12/18). This value is down about 75% from the 5-year average of about 1.6 million acres burned in the Golden State (data source). The relatively mild year of 2023 follows another relatively mild year in 2022; however, the two years before that (2020, 2021) were some of the worst on record.
The weather during 2023 played an important role in keeping wildfire activity on the mild side across California. To begin, the winter of 2022-2023 brought very high precipitation amounts to the Golden State with record-breaking snow amounts at the higher elevations (e.g., Sierra Nevada). The melting of the snow this past summer season indeed lasted as late as ever in some spots helping to keep plenty of soil on the wet side across portions of California. Also, the wildfire season of summer and fall featured overall cooler than normal conditions helping to inhibit wildfire formation and expansion. Finally, Tropical Storm Hilary made a visit to the southern part of the state during the middle of August and the precipitation from this storm played a beneficial role in inhibiting wildfires during the all-important late summer and early fall time period.
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California still has an issue with wildlands management, with the greens opposing logging and grazing, with the addition of CARB blocking controlled burns. The greens have the attitude that doing nothing is exactly what is required to “preserve nature”.
This will preserve nature but kill people who live near the woodlands and grasslands.
I’ve been fighting against forestry haters for 50 years here in Wokeachusetts. Forestry needs improvement- I’m also a critic, despite being a forester for all that time- I ask them to help FIX forestry- but no, they want to end it. I detest them.
Alarmists persisted in talking of doomsday scenarios of catastrophic wildfires engulfing Canada in late spring, along with the smoke reaching New York City. They fail to grasp the elementary fact that Canada is colder than California during the summer months. Even in an unusually warm late spring in Canada, the temperatures remain colder than California’s. This blatant disregard only amplifies the simplistic and effortlessly debunked quality of alarmist claims. Temperature alone doesn’t dictate the severity of wildfires. Rather, forest management policies are evidently the more substantial factor at play.
Down here in the Aussie summer, pretty quiet summer so far with bushfire.
Was a largish one out the northwest of NSW, and the usual small localised bush and grass fires.
Problem is, the regular dumps of rain are keeping everything growing like crazy.
There is a lot of tall spindly saplings, grass etc everywhere… just waiting for a dry period and a spark. !
Outer suburbs of Perth had to evacuate just last week.
As always, the critical risk factor with bushfires isn’t bush or lightning, it’s WIND.
I sometimes forget Perth is part of Australia 😉 (lol)
imo, Perth is the most Aussie of all capital cities there.
I avoid capital cities. 😉
Total number of hectares burnt in five mediterranean countries since the 80’s has no correlation to temperature or quantity of CO² in the atmosphere either.
Their Boiling World narrative is utter BS.
More left over to burn next year.
No kidding – the veg growth in the Mojave and South Sierra this year is amazing
Same for the growth in western central Colorado. We had rain through the 18th of June, when there is usually zero inches after May, I measured 1.91″. Then, as per usual, it started raining again July 20th. The wildflowers and subsequent fruits were amazing, as well as the size/height of the flora. This proved out with only a sole bear visit to inspect my apple and pear trees. Usually, it is a race to pick before the bears strip the fruit, but they had plenty of food in the wild. Also, the wet June kept the ground cooler than usual, and the mycelium didn’t like it. Mushrooms never came to fruition in July as usual, nor even later in August where we normally harvest. That is 9-10K feet in altitude and freezes by September.
It has been burning so long in California, millions of years, that some of the big trees, like sequoias and redwoods, and other species, need fire to germinate their seeds.
nice photo …. er… uh… AI!
The only wildfire possible in that green scene would have to involve napalm.
Which apparently smells nice in the morning.
It also helps that some of the arsonist whackos took the year off.
Yeah, where were they, with the Just Stop Oil gang? And speaking of them, are they the same crowd that was BLM?
I’m pretty sure they took their vacations in the Med this year.
And took lots of “meds” while on that vacation”
“however, the two years before that (2020, 2021) were some of the worst on record.”
A totally false statement, since “the record” goes back to the early 1900s.
No where close to the “worst on record”, yet another fraudulent statement. That is it is a bald faced l!e. Any recent year has been less than 25% of “the worst on record”, which happened during a really “warm” era, the 1930s.