Burning During a Drought - Don't Do It!

It seems to fall to me to be the Wolfskin Scold. So be it.

In the past week Wolfskin has been called out for wildland fires four times. In three of these cases the problem has been homeowners doing a "controlled burn". As far as I know, in none of these cases did the homeowners call Georgia Forestry Commission for a permit. Folks - you must call for a permit. At the very least you get good advice and it helps to protect you if the fire gets out of control. We can imagine the worst-case scenario.

Look - in the past 13 days here in the Wolfskin area we have had exactly 0.05" of rain. In March, April, and May we had 3.0", 1.55", and 1.4" of rain. So far in June we've had 0.45". Alberto didn't help us much at all, except to cool things down a bit and produce some gusty winds. We normally get 4.5" per month. This is WAY below what we should be getting.

The ground is dry, the vegetation is dry, the temperatures are way higher than normal, and we've been at least a Class 3+ day (high fire danger) for the last two weeks (a few days ago we were at the highest, Class 5 - extreme fire danger). It's not rocket science to know that if you're burning stumps, say, which you should not be doing in this kind of weather, and you go off to work the next day and the smouldering stumps light your yard on fire that this is a problem. Armed with this scenario, you certainly shouldn't be relighting the stumps the next night. If you are a neighbor watching this, you have a right to complain. I shudder thinking about the 50-acre pasture of dry grass across the road, and the dozen or so houses that sit right on that pasture.

Be aware that GFC does not like to see fires going on into the late afternoon. In the evening and night the smoke stays low to the ground and annoys people. 911 gets calls about smoke smells and that annoys them.

Go to the right sidebar - the Georgia Forestry Commission phone number is there. The website is there, and you can apply for a permit on that website. The Georgia map of fire danger is there too. Don't burn if it's a Class 3 day or above.

Here's another convenient GFC page - Forecast Conditions. Don't let your eyes cross too much. Here's the way you interpret the numbers, but I'll give you a little crash course on what to look for right here.

Believe it or not I look at this every day. On Tuesday night, when I saw the stump fires burning I predicted we'd be called out and the next day at 1pm we were.

For our area I scroll down and look at the Watkinsville entry, and maybe the Washington, GA entry. If you're elsewhere, look for the entry closest to you. If you're outside of Georgia, you might find a link to your area here.

Look at the maximum temperature, wind conditions, and relative humidity. Afternoons are going to be the worst conditions. Here is danger, Will Robinson. Max temps, 90 degrees or higher. Wind conditions, greater than 10 mph. Relative humidity during the afternoon, 40% or lower. Bad, no, don't do it! These are at *least* the conditions we're in right now at this moment.

There's two other indices to look at:

The BI - the burn index. Divide it by 10. That's the height of the flames you might see, in feet. Of course it depends on what kind of land is burning and it isn't the best index, but if it's greater than 100, DON'T BURN. Do you think you can deal with 10-foot flames? I don't.

The KBDI number. It ranges from 0 (wet) to 800(extremely dry) and tells you how dry the soil is. The top part of the soil does burn. Right now we are at a KBDI of 550. These are very dry soil conditions.

Here's the GFC forecast for today:

Max temps: 93 degrees F (hot)
Wind: 3mph (calm, not bad, but in view of everything else, bad)
Relative Humidity: 33% this afternoon (very dry)
Burn Index: 15 (expect 1.5-foot flames, depending on fuel)
KBDI: 550 (very dry).

All this adds up to a high hazard Class 3-plus day, and for the next five days it's just going to get worse. And yet the folks burning the stumps are doing it again, and again they're going to go off to work leaving them burning. I predict we're going to get another call today.

-Wayne