Fire season delayed by rains, cooler weather

Before the county entered the month of July, it seemed like the days of rain would never come to an end, but as of late they have. Jim Ward, from the Superior Ranger District, said that although they had a good rainy season, they are still anticipating and preparing for a fire season that could potentially be bad.

"The rain has helped delay the onset of fire season, but it may actually set it up to be more of an issue," said Ward.

Referencing the Northern Rockies Coordination Center (NRCC), which is the interagency focal point for coordinating the mobilization of resources for wild land fire and other all-hazard incidents, Ward explained that the area went into winter coming out of a relatively dry fall in 2009. The precipitation was 50 to 90 percent normal and the snow pack going into winter was especially low for the lower Clark Fork area, which was 50 to 60 percent of normal.

"And then we had an early break from winter in March where things were warm and dry and everyone was extremely concerned about the fire season," Ward said. "We were reaching fire danger levels that were unusual for extended periods of time."

Of course, then the rains moved in and have stayed with the exception of a few nice days. One of the benefits of the rain is that they have essentially brought the snow pack levels to normal in wetting the larger fuels such as the heavy dead logs in the forest. Back when the area went from winter to fall, the sudden freezing temperatures didn't allow the logs to absorb much moisture and then of course they were frozen throughout the winter.

These "1,000 hour fuels" as Ward called were pretty dry. However, with the rains, they were soaked to the center, which takes about 1,000 hours. Ward said that the larger fuels are looking good for this time of year and have made a good recovery.

So while the rain has been beneficial, Ward said that it is being predicted that July is going to be warmer and dryer than usual. The logs will take around 1,000 to dry out, but Ward said that is not the only item to worry about now as the rain allowed a good flush of growth to take place of grasses and shrubs, which will become a problem if July turns out as predicted.

"If July is warmer and dryer more than normal, all those tall fuels will cure out, which essentially means to dry, and they'll die becoming available as dead fuel," Ward said. "So for example, instead of one to two foot grasses, we'll have three to four foot grasses, twice as much as those fine grass fuels."

Ward noted that there are still a lot of wild cards in place as fires have to have an ignition to get started. Two of the larger factors for the area that Ward noted are lighting and people. Also important, is the fact that some days haven't been extremely warmer and have actually been cooler, and so that will also affect the drying out time of the fuels.

"One good thing too is if we continue to get a little moisture so we won't have full on curing of fine fuels. We can only hope to continue to get some moisture."

Ward mentioned that one of the few good things is that while they've had drought conditions in the area, he said that it wasn't a long-term drought, which could have been worse.

"The rain provided some good relief," Ward said. "We'll always have a fire season we just don't know to what extent."