Wildfires can break out anytime where it's dry and windy

I've had many questions concerning fire seasons this drier than normal spring of 2013. One subscriber asked if they occur at different times across the country. Yes, Jan, they do.

A wildfire season is underway somewhere in the United States virtually every month of the year. This is due to different precipitation patterns across the nation on a seasonal basis.

For example, due to the fact that winter is the dry season in the southeastern U.S. and Florida, wildfires often occur in these regions during the late winter and early spring.

New England and the Midwest have fire seasons in both the spring and the fall. Wildfires occur in the Great Plains, the Rockies and the Far Western states anytime there are severe drought conditions like the recent spring's record wildfires in California and Colorado.

The normal fire season in California occurs in the late summer and early to mid fall months when the dreaded Santa Ana winds fan the blazes. They sometimes occur as late as December or even January if the normal rainy season is delayed that particular winter.

Our normal fire season in the Inland Northwest usually follows a long, hot summer period with little rain. Thunderstorms and careless people are often blamed for wildfires locally in Idaho. Once again, strong winds will turn a small blaze into a raging inferno.

In May of 2000, a 'controlled burn' fire set by the National Park Service to clear brush in New Mexico flared out of control and burned for many days. More than 400 families saw their houses "go up in smoke" in the Los Alamos area. Park Service officials had failed to account for unusually high winds predicted for the region.

During the various fire seasons, National Weather Service forecasters are assigned to predict how daily weather conditions will possibly affect the danger levels of wildfires in a given location. They also warn the public how such conditions will affect the ability of firefighters to battle whatever wildfires break out. In the past several months, many people have been forced by huge wildfires to abandon their homes and literally "run for their lives."

To answer another related question, large wildfires can create their own weather. We saw this happen last week in Colorado, where the worst wildfires in the state's history destroyed more than 500 homes earlier this month. Nearly 25 square miles were charred near Colorado Springs.

Hot updrafts often cause cumulus clouds to form, causing thunderstorms that can produce strong winds, heavy rain and hail. But, sometimes, there is not helpful moisture. These powerful updrafts can cause the air to rush toward the wildfire fanning it into an explosive firestorm.

This late summer or early fall we may see wildfires break out in North Idaho. Conditions are already much drier than normal, despite last week's moisture. Only time will tell.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

I wrote this North Idaho weather update on a very wet and chilly June 21, the first full day of the summer season. It seemed more like April 21, or even March 21, as the mercury hovered in the 40s as late as 10 a.m.

Locally, we saw the wettest end to any spring season since at least the inception of local weather record-keeping in 1895 on Thursday. I measured a whopping 1.69 inches of precipitation on June 20, easily smashing the previous record for the date of 0.88 inches set nearly a century ago in 1916.

Many weather stations in the region, including mine, gauged between 2 and 3 inches of rain during the 48-hour period ending at midnight on June 20. Our normal precipitation total for the entire month of June in Coeur d'Alene is just 1.93 inches.

Oddly enough in this current cycle of wide weather 'extremes,' the first 18 days of this month were very dry with only a scant .24 inches of rain. Many people were worried about the possibility of early wildfires and the increased danger of fireworks displays by July 4.

But, that was 'then,' and this is 'now.' Avista Utilities was forced on Thursday by the record rains to open a gate at the Post Falls Dam, thereby closing the boat launch at Q'emiln Park and the nearby beach for swimming until further notice.

We were still predicting on Friday that Sunday's Ironman competition would see much better weather with partly cloudy skies expected by Sunday and high temperatures in the mid to upper 70s. More showers, however, were in store for much of this coming week as a new low pressure 'trough' looms in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Longer-term, Randy Mann and I are still forecasting a warm and dry summer season under a strong ridge of high pressure over the region.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com