WUWT Cites SOSF Fire Graphs

The founder and purveyor of Watts Up With That, the premier climate realist website and blog (twice the winner of the Best Science Blog), the estimable Anthony Watts, has posted some of our fire graphs [here].

But they are outdated (my fault). Here are the latest:

Data are from the National Interagency Fire Center.

There are some evident trends.

1. Total acres burned has increased from the 1960’s to this Century, from an average of 4.6 million acres per year to 6.8 million acres per year.

2. Average acres per fire has also increased, from a low in the 1970’s of 21 acres per fire to 83 acres per fire in this Century.

3. Number of fires per year has decreased from a high (1975-1984) of nearly 190,000 fires per year to 83,000 fires per year this Century.

Fewer but larger fires this Century, and more acres burned in total.

23 Jun 2012, 2:25pm
by bear bait


You need a graph to go with this that shows the mmbf of timber logged on public and private lands for the same periods. As the timber removal drops, I think we might see the acres burned per fire rises. I would also expect to see a twenty year lag from the highest logging volumes to the highest acreage averages burned, as the logged over ground become unthinned peckerpole stands of stressed, crowded trees. And I could be absolutely wrong.

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