Wildfire Preparedness in Alaska Moves To PL4, Nationally PL3 Along With Two Other Regions.

But how does this stack up historically?

This morning brought with it wide swaths of Red Flag warnings, heat warnings, wind warnings, and relative humidities lower than the IQ of a wombat.

Alaska stealthily went PL4, The Great Basin, Southwest, and nationally moved to a wildfire preparedness of 3. What does that mean exactly?

According to The National Interagency Fire Center, a PL3 Nationally means that mobilization of resources nationally is required to sustain incident management operations in active geographic areas. National priorities are established to address the demand for shared resources among active geographic areas. There is a moderate to high probability that drawing down resources from non-active geographic areas may pose a risk should existing conditions change.

Wildfire activity has increased substantially across multiple states. In Nevada, the Conner Fire ran 14,000 acres through thick Juniper and Pinyon Pine in just hours. Utah saw growth across the France Canyon and Forsyth Fires, nearly 18,000 acres combined, and multiple structures were lost in the community of Pine Valley, despite an incredible round-the-clock effort by firefighters.

Smokey Bear tried to warn us… Thanks to the subscriber who shared this dose of reality from Smokey in Utah.

The Trout Fire in New Mexico experienced another very active fire day, with plume-dominated fire activity expanding the fire to nearly 47,000 acres. They have been dropping 50 loads of retardant on that fire a day, with over 170 flight hours from helicopters assisnged to the fire. The CIMT noted that previous fuel reduction work along the Highway 35 corridor helped keep the fire from jumping the roadway.

Something for communities to think about.

Yesterday’s Fire Activity on the Trout Fire, New Mexico: Subscriber Submitted

Alaska’s fire season is in full swing now, with multiple fires prompting the deployment of teams and evacuation warnings being issued to local residents.

The Kechumstuk fire, west of Chicken, Alaska, has grown to nearly 4,300 acres. The Himalaya Road Fire has burned 1,500 acres, and the Lush Fire is now over 1,000 acres. Dozens more are burning in the vast black spruce forests and Tundra.

Kechumstuk fire west of Chicken, Alaska. Photo by Nathan Zalewski/DOF

Meanwhile… Montana has winter weather warnings. Mother Nature and Earth are acting as if they are bipolar. Earth literally is…

So, in the historic sense, what does this increase in Preparedness Level look like? The earliest we have ever seen a PL3 Nationally was back on May 12th, 2000. The latest we have ever seen a PL3 Nationally was on November 3rd, 2003. Eighteen of the last 35 June’s, the nation hit a Preparedness Level of 3.

If we move to a PL4 before July hits, that’s a different story. That has only happened four times in the last 35 years, and PL5 has occurred only once in June, all the way back in 2002.

The total acres burned so far is 1.36 million, with over 32,600 new starts. Both of these are right in line with the ten-year average, or just barely above. What does stand out is that there are 23 Hotshot Crews on incidents in the Great Basin, and EVERY Type 2IA crew that is available in the region is committed to a fire.

30 Hotshot crews are now stationed in the Southwest or on fires, and we still have 19 crews up in Canada. Every Crew in Alaska is also committed to an incident. Jumpers have been very busy as well, a good sign for the Bros. Basically, every Hotshot crew in the Nation is on a fire or a pre-position order.

I keep bringing up the 2012 fire season as it pertains to the Great Basin. If you were there, you know. That year, we spent each roll chasing 40,000-acre after 40,000-acre desert fires across Utah and Nevada. We were called to Dugway Proving Grounds and had helicopters calling out 10,000-pound unexploded ordnances from the air that were in front of our digline, and side-stepped mortar rounds for miles. Crews burned off hundreds of miles of line on rarely traveled two-track roads.

One stretch we went over 40 straight days on fire, with the help of some Hotshot math, before getting days off after barely catching the Dump Fire in Utah, which was running towards a dynamite factory in the desert.

The 2012 Dump Fire: Utah BLM

People began to go crazy due to the dust, heat, and lack of shade. We befriended horned toads in the desert and fed them water and Goo packs because they were the only ones who seemed to understand what we were going through.

It’s setting up for that type of Great Basin season again. While we haven’t historically reached any “unprecedented” levels, if a PL4 is reached before July, we will definitely enter that territory. And by the looks of the eerie sky currently across Utah, fire season is here to stay.

Yesterday’s Fire activity in Utah: Subscriber submitted

Good luck to the 6,600 firefighters currently on fires across America and Canada. It appears that Honey and Oats will be readily available this summer. (Hazard Pay and Overtime) for the uninitiated.

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