Substation Fire - The Deschutes

[drm]

Charley, I'm having the same problem.

Same with me. The site is having some problems with it's cookies - which is how it knows you are logged on.

[VanMarmot]

are forest fires getting more frequent than they used to or is it just my imagination?

ODF History

Bigger ones back in the day. Maybe it feels like more because there are now more of us to notice?

[Aimless]

Maybe it feels like more because there are now more of us to notice?

I think local news outlets report fires more breathlessly than they used to and use more hyperbole about their danger and damage, largely for the same reason that local TV news has transformed into crime news and weather forecasts try to make the weather sound as dramatic as possible. On the other side of the coin, the fuel load in forests has increased, from a combination of factors, but mostly from a century of fire suppression.

Lastly, human population has grown very dramatically, so fires affect far more people, more closely, than in the past. It's a bit like the problem of the predator-human interface, where we recognize the need for wolves and cougars in the wild, but there's fewer wild places for these animals to live where they don't impinge on our own prerogatives. We recognize the need for fire in a healthy ecosystem, but there's nowhere for fires to burn freely without burning things we value and want to preserve.

[Peabody]

Where did you get those aerial pictures? Very cool.

[drm]

They are definitely getting more frequent, and bigger in area - and the season is getting longer.

[retired jerry]

good data VM

in the Tillamook burn days (1930s) fire were much worse, by total acres burned

then number of acres reduced until 1980s

since then it's been going up

those are for areas primarily protected by Oregon Department of Forestry which oddly includes the Yellowstone fire in Wyoming

Interesting that most fires are human caused and not lightning caused

Interesting that number of fires hasn't varied that much, it's the number of acres burned that varies so much

[retired jerry]

U.S. fires http://wildfiretoday.com/tag/statistics/



for the U.S. in total, number of acres burned has about tripled since 1990

[Charley]

Where did you get those aerial pictures? Very cool.

Here: https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/

There goes your afternoon.