Autumn drought sparks wildfire hazards across much of the US

Dry conditions across most of the northern part of the U.S. are leading to widespread wildfire danger.

Transcript

00:00We've been getting dry out there, and two years ago we had somewhat of a similarly dry fall.

00:06In fact, some of this footage is from two different brush fires that I was at,

00:11and I've been a volunteer firefighter for much of the past 20 years or so in central Pennsylvania,

00:16two Novembers ago, November of 2022.

00:19Here you can see some footage from the state game lands west of State College, PA,

00:23after a 26-acre wildfire moved through.

00:26And we also had a field fire within a day or two of that.

00:29It can get dry, and it's not just in the spring brush fire season that the northeast can get into it.

00:34It's also not just the western U.S. where we have the big risk.

00:38So let's take a look at the current wildfire risk,

00:41and our long-range forecast team has been watching this, our fire weather forecast team.

00:45And while the greatest risk overall may be in eastern Oregon and Idaho,

00:49you can see we've popped back up into the moderate risk of fire danger into the northeast areas,

00:54not far from New York City, Philadelphia, up into the Poconos, Pittsburgh, PA as well.

00:58So be very careful out there.

01:00This time of the year, if we have dry, increasingly dormant vegetation,

01:04as the growing season is ending, it's drying out.

01:07We don't have as many leaves in the trees.

01:10Lack of forest canopy can accelerate the evaporation,

01:13as the sun on bright, warm days is very effective at drying out the vegetation, low humidity.

01:18And on windy days, we do often see fires take off.

01:22The top three causes of wildfires, loss of control and debris burning.

01:26So people will try to burn leaves this time of the year.

01:28Don't do that on breezy days.

01:30Unattended or unextinguished campfires can get out of control.

01:34And sometimes when people idle their vehicle on tall grass, that can lead to wildfire spread.

01:41So report any unattended fires.

01:43Extinguish those fire pits and campfires before you go to sleep.

01:46And don't throw lit cigarettes out of a moving car.

01:49And don't park on tall grass.