Wild fires in the Carolinas
The entire Southeastern United States has been in a drought this entire year. There has not been significant rainfall for some time, including Transylvania, County in North Carolina where I spend much of my time. Transylvania County, known for two major natural things, over 250 beautiful waterfalls and the fact that it has the highest rainfalls outside the Pacific Northwest with some parts of the county normally getting over 90 inches per year. But not this year. Rain has barely touched the ground in Transylvania County and the nearby areas in North Carolina and South Carolina. The entire Southeast is a tinder box just waiting for wildfires to start.
Last week, we traveled to Florida for a family reunion and so I could visit my mother. Our route from Brevard, North Carolina takes us south along one of the most beautiful highways around, US 276 to where it ultimately connects with SC 11, also known as the Cherokee Foothills Highway. We travel along the very scenic SC 11 highway through most of the South Carolina portion of our journey. Last Thursday as we were driving on SC 11, we noticed some light smoke along the mountain ridges to our north and saw some forestry crews coming into the area. Little did we know that this was the beginning of a very bad wild fire known as the Pinnacle Mountain fire.
The Pinnacle Mountain fire is one of many fires in NC and SC, but it is the one closest to my home county in NC, Transylvania County which borders South Carolina in the area of this wildfire. It is also very near to the 7,500 acre Gorges State Park which is home to many deep ravines and some of the least explored land in the state. Some areas of the park had not seen humans in over 100 years and therefore are incredibly pristine with new waterfalls still being discovered on the park land.
The website, Wild Fire Today, contains some very interesting information and maps of the five major wild fires in the Carolinas. Scroll down on the link to read about each of the five largest wild fires in the Carolinas. The Pinnacle Mountain wild fire was believed to have started as a result of an unattended camp fire. If officials are able to determine who was responsible, those persons could be subject to criminal charges.
Yesterday and today, forestry officials were planning on doing a burnout to slow and possibly stop the progress of the Pinnacle Mountain fire. It is critical that these burnouts be completed and successful in advance of predicted high wind conditions later this weekend. This link has a spectacular photograph of the Pinnacle Mountain fire as it burns at Table Rock which can be seen toward the upper right hand corner of the photograph. This is the view we see when we travel SC 11. There was no smoke or fire anywhere near Table Rock when we drove by one week ago Thursday.
If you visit only one link in this essay, go to this link and scroll down to a video in which a forest ranger gives a very detailed interview about the Pinnacle Mountain fire and the strategy they are using to fight that fire. Her presentation gives a wonderful insight into which tools being used in this fire and why they were chosen to do so at this time. She also mentions that wild fires such as the Pinnacle Mountain fire are extremely rare in this part of NC. This is mainly due to the normally very high rainfall that this area experiences year round. The severe drought conditions are the reason why these fires have grown so fast.
Today we were scheduled to return back to NC, but have delayed doing so because of the forecasts for very heavy smoke along the route we would normally travel. The earliest we will probably return will be on Sunday depending upon the travel conditions. Our town is not in any danger from these wild fires.
Comments
Forest fires in the east can occur in both the spring and the
fall. The spring fire season is the more reliable one with fires occurring before the vegetation turns green. The fall fire season depends on drought and fallen leaves of the great deciduous forest.
Typically in the autumn, the fires are slow moving and very smoky. They get hot enough to ignite the duff which makes putting them out very difficult. It's possible in stands of pines for crowning to occur but because conifers are usually scattered you don't get the fire storms you encounter in the west.
In the west, the vegetation begins spring and early summer as moist as it gets and thereafter dries out and fires occur in the summer and fall. In the eastern mountains, the vegetation is dry in late winter and early spring and gains moisture as the year progresses. The fall fire season - most years there isn't one - depends on the tinder dry fallen leaves to feed the fire which then can consume trees. Often, fires are ground events but still hard to extinguish.
People in TN, NC, GA, and SC are suffering because of the smoke that covers the area and doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Crowning
One of the problems with these fires is that many of the leaves have not yet fallen, so the fires are not just limited to the ground. The smoke heading south a week ago was over most of Georgia. Friends of ours in Brevard say the smoke there is really bad.
In my eleven years there, I can never remember hearing of a wild fire in the forests. It is usually too wet for most fires to take ahold in this part of the mountains.
In the southern pine forests, control burning is a very useful tool to prevent wild fires. It is heavily used in my home county and I cannot remember a wild fire happening there since they started using controlled burns on a regular basis.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
In my years living in the southern mountains, forest fires were
fairly common at 3000 feet in the spring some years. We went for a number of years without a fall fire season and there was talk of removing the fall as a fire danger period. As we found out, and are finding out this year, wild fires can indeed be a hazard in the autumn. Most of NC east to Greensboro is under an air quality advisory due to the fires in western NC and eastern TN.
Does it seem to you that the leaves are staying on the trees later than normal? I think so anyway and others in the piedmont have said the same thing.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
I have wonder if they have enough people fighting the fires
when I see that they continue to spread out over miles of the country. How can 1,000-3,000 people contain that big of an area?
There are too many states that are experiencing droughts in the last 5 years or so.
Utah has been in one for this long and some knuckleheads decided that it was a good idea to put the NSA's fusion center in Blanding when it takes either 1 million gallons of water a day or 5. Don't remember.
The Great Salt Lake is so low that it is effecting our weather.
We used to have thunderstorms during the summers over the lake and we haven't been getting them as much.
Then there is our snow seasons. Utah is known for having some of the best snow in this country and the lake effects the winter storms.
Tuesday it was 71 degrees and we finally got a storm that only brought in cold temperatures that caused Ivey road conditions and a skiff of snow. We are back in the 50's again.
I have seen many people comment on how warm they are too.
We got lucky with not having many fires, but look at what happened in California this summer.
The waterfalls are beautiful. Thanks for the link to them.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
From what I've read, the fires seem to be understaffed. The
fires in the National Forests are drawing firefighters from the USFS nationwide but it doesn't seem to be enough. Creeping fires respond best to hand firefighting(unless you can get an engine close enough) and that is very labor intensive. There are more dwellings in the east so these fires should be a major priority. Usually, the humidity limits the spread but relative humidities have been quite low.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
I don't think there will be a natural lake left in the Great
Basin within 50 years. When I lived in SW Utah, we only got 12 inches of precip a year and I understand that it has gotten drier. The Uintah Mtns always could count on good snowfall and even the Henrys in the south got their share(as did the LaSals).
Long term, I think the area will get more and more arid.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
It is not just the number of fire fighters
Firefighters have come from all over the area plus they are using local fire departments and the national guard too. If you go to the first video in the last link, the ranger explains one of the big problems in fighting the Pinnacle Mountain fire was the extreme slopes involved. Coupled with the pending high winds this weekend, this was one of the main reasons they decided to use aerial drops to create the over burn. The technology behind it is very interesting and she explains it very well.
The steep slopes of the mountains in this part of NC, along with Transylvania County being in a rain forest, create conditions for beautiful waterfalls. Right now, because of the drought, the waterfalls are mostly fairly puny because the rivers that feed them are low. So far, there have been no wild fires reported in Transylvania County, thankfully. We have two large state forests (Dupont and Gorges) and one national forest (Pisgah) in the county so there is a lot of area that is remote. Since the Pinnacle Mountain fire is so close, this is the one I have focused on.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Rain doesn't seem to be in the cards. The escarpment is very
steep all along the Blue Ridge and down into your area. I hope the fires stay out of the Kilmer Forest which is a wonderful area with all the huge trees.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
air quality is bad in state
I am in Chapel Hill, and my teen son's track practice was called off today due to the smoke in our area. It was a sunny day but I noticed tonight that our solar panels(36 on roof) got about 2 kwh less than yesterday with same conditions. Our firefighters have been out in the fire area but it is dry here too so hoping this calms soon.
One of my best friends lives in the Claremont-Hickory
area. She's been there for decades. She said she has never seen drought like this. She also added that the weather forecasters are saying no rain until around Christmas. Needless to say, she is very aware of climate change.
Rec'd!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.