SPOKANE, Wash. — Usually in late May, fields in the Inland Northwest are still green and growing high with lush weeds.
This year, we’ve got a jump start into the dry season—the fine fuels are already tinder dry, burn restrictions have already been issued and it is going to be a long fire season.
These conditions have been three months in the making.
After a wet start to 2021, we only picked up at little more than a quarter of an inch of precipitation in March. That’s a sixth of average.
April showers did not show up this year. We got even less precipitation, less than a quarter of an inch, and again, just a sixth of average.
Now, here we are in May. Not counting the rain we’re getting today, we’ve only received two-tenths of an inch of rain; only about an eighth of average.
These grim statistics are for Spokane, but the story is the similar throughout the region.
The latest drought monitor shows large portions of the Eastern Washington and North Idaho have been abnormally dry or are in moderate to severe drought. The long-range forecasts for the summer offer no hope to reverse this trend.
Now, we have to work to limit fire starts as much as possible.
COPYRIGHT 2021 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
The Link LonkMay 28, 2021 at 06:49AM
https://www.kxly.com/washingtons-dry-spring-points-to-long-fire-season-this-summer/
Washington's dry spring points to long fire season this summer - KXLY Spokane
https://news.google.com/search?q=dry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment