BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) -- Wildfires raged across the southeast U.S. over the past week, leading to over 15,000 acres of real estate completely scorched from Alabama to North Carolina.
In Alabama alone, over 6,000 acres have burned since last weekend, even leading to evacuation orders in some communities. While wildfires are not uncommon in this part of the country, it may seem odd for them to be occurring during our traditional wettest time of the year.
The latest drought monitor, however, does show evidence of abnormally dry conditions to moderate drought across portions of the fire-ravaged states. While that isn't the leading factor for wildfires spreading, it certainly hasn't helped.
One factor that stands out in early March is what is sitting on top of the dry soil, which is the dry and dormant vegetation. In addition to that, there is plenty of pine straw on the forest floor at this time of year, which is highly flammable.
In terms of the weather conditions, many of these fires were easily able to spread because of very low relative humidity, which means the air has been very dry. The critical threshold for enhanced fire danger is when the relative humidity is under 25-30%, which has been the case for consecutive days across most of the southeast over the last week.
For central Alabama, the relative humidity will be much higher Tuesday as some moisture heads our way ahead of an approaching cold front. Our minimum relative humidity Tuesday afternoon will be around 40-50%, which is significant improvement compared to recent days. That should mitigate any new fires from burning. Healthier fires, however, will still be very capable of spreading as gusty winds arrive Tuesday.
By noon Tuesday, winds will be gusting over 30 miles per hour, potentially as high as 40-55 miles per hour by the evening hours. Despite the moister air in place, it would not take long for those larger fires to get out of hand with these high winds heading our way.
The recommendation continues to be advising all residents across the area to refrain from burning through at least Tuesday evening. One to two inches of rain will fall Tuesday night, considerably improving those dry conditions for the second half of the week.
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