Recent rains have helped in disastrous fire season

After one of the hottest and driest summers in recorded history across the Inland Northwest, we finally received some much-needed rainfall in late August and early September along with cooler temperatures.

The recent moisture has helped the disastrous fire situation. But as of late last week, there were 11 major fires burning in Washington, nine in Idaho, four in Oregon, five in California, eight in Montana and three in Utah according to the National Interagency Fire Center. There have been slightly over 45,000 fires this year across the country, with the majority in the western U.S. There are still over 1.7 million acres that are active from fires.

Thanks to the big drought pattern and dry lightning events, about 8.6 million acres have burned across the country. The record was in 2006 when over 9.8 million acres were consumed and officials say that we're on a pace to beat that record.

The majority of the western fires in 2015 were in Alaska as approximately 5.2 million acres were burned. Only the 2004 season was worse when over 6.5 million acres went up in smoke. Normally, Alaska sees fires that claim about 800,000 acres each year.

The 2015 wildfire season across the western U.S. has been one of the biggest, in terms of the number of fires, in recorded history. Even in southwestern Canada, wildfires have consumed over 700,000 acres in British Columbia. In Washington, nearly 600,000 acres have burned across the central and eastern portions of the state, while at least 500,000 acres were consumed in Idaho.

The smoke from western wildfires was so extensive it drifted all the way to the southeastern portion of the country. It was so thick that air quality levels in Coeur d'Alene shot up into the "hazardous" category in late August, the highest levels since the eruption of Mount St. Helens in May of 1980, which sent a large cloud of volcanic ash over the area. During that time, the ash cloud was so thick that it literally turned day into night.

Perhaps the worst fire in this region occurred on Aug. 20-21, 1910. The "Great Fire of 1910," or the "Big Blow Up," was a massive wildfire that burned 3 million acres in only two days across northeastern Washington, the panhandle of northern Idaho and western Montana. In the spring and summer of that year, conditions were extremely dry and hot.

In 1910, small fires were set from hot cinders flung from locomotives, sparks and lightning from isolated thunderstorms. Then on Aug. 20, a weather system brought hurricane-force winds that whipped many of those small blazes into the gigantic inferno.

One of the most amazing survival stories from that fire was that of Ed Pulaski, a U.S. Forest Service ranger. While fighting this massive blaze, prior to being overtaken by the flames, he led a large group of men to safety in an abandoned mine outside of Wallace. He knew that if anyone ran, there was no chance of survival. Pulaski threatened to shoot the first one who tried to leave. The men passed out in the mine due to the smoke, but only 5 out of the estimated 40 persons didn't survive. Pulaski was credited for saving their lives and for the invention of the Pulaski hand tool still used for firefighting in wooded areas.

That firestorm raised public awareness concerning nature conservation and helped shape the U.S. Forest Service. It also displayed the bravery and dedication of firefighters.

We thank the brave firefighters for their service and still have a long way to go before the fire season is over across the West. During this time of year, the dry and hot 'Santa Ana' winds will often develop in Southern California that have led to a number of disastrous fires. With extreme dryness in the Golden State, it's quite possible that the late summer and fall of 2015 in California will be a rough one for fires.

In terms of our weather, the recent rains and cooler temperatures have helped the fire situation and dramatically improved the air quality in our region. As of this September 10 writing, it appears that more shower activity is expected this week. Then, the high pressure ridge rebuilds giving us mostly drier than normal weather with pleasant temperatures.

There's a good chance of more showers moving into eastern Washington and North Idaho during the 'full moon' lunar phase of late September and early October. Overall, the fall of 2015 should have moisture totals climb to at least near-normal levels. But, I don't see much rain in moisture-starved California until late October or November.

On another note, we've been trying to figure out a name for this column. If you have any suggestions, or other questions or comments relating to this topic, please send them to randy@longrangeweather.com.

Weekly Cd'A Weather Almanac

By Cliff Harris, climatologist

• Week's warmest temperature: 90 degrees on Sept. 12

• Week's coldest temperature: 45 degrees on Sept. 7

• Weekly precipitation: 0.10 inches

• Precipitation month to date: 0.33 inches

• Normal precipitation month to date: 0.64 inches

• Precipitation month to date last year: 0.39 inches

• Precipitation year to date: 15.31 inches

• Normal precipitation year to date: 16.74 inches

• Precipitation last year to date: 23.46 inches

• Normal annual precipitation: 26.77 inches

• Total precipitation last year: 33.67 inches

• Precipitation predicted this year: 31.12 inches

• Wettest month on record (since 1895): 9.91 inches in December 1933

• Wettest year on record (since 1895): 43.27 inches in 2012

• Driest month on record (since 1895): 0.00 inches (14 times)

• Driest year on record (since 1895): 15.18 inches in 1929

Readings taken week ending 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13