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.
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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).
*A year-end wrap-up…US wildfires down…US tornadoes most since 2019…an active tropical season, but most activity stayed over the Atlantic…other important tropical metrics nearly normal* — Arcfield Weather
Read the whole article, at the link.
Canada Wildfires
Politicians said the 2023 fires were caused by global burning/seas boiling – but then how to explain the prior 23 years?
Trend in hurricanes
