Welcome rain doesn’t dampen need to practice fire safety

The temptation is great to complain about recent rainy weather. After all, we’ve enjoyed the finest summer in years, with long runs of sunny days warmed by plenty of temperatures into the 70s and 80s.

Folks trying to keep lawns green and tomatoes ripening all summer are no doubt especially aware of just how little rain has fallen this summer, too. According to the National Weather Service, the longest dry spell in the last 12 months in the Anchorage area was from June 3 to July 1. That’s 29 consecutive days with no measured precipitation.

Not surprisingly, the month with the largest fraction of dry days in the last year was June, with 97 percent of days being precipitation-free. After record-setting temperatures in June, July conditions turned more toward the norm, but a few periods of warmer days with little rainfall kept things very much on the dry side.

While dry may be great for outdoor recreation, it is far from great for fire conditions. So wildland firefighters surely appreciate the recent rain, which has greatly reduced fire danger in Southcentral Alaska.

Not so in the Interior, however, where several wildland fires still burn and extremely dry conditions persist.

Even locally, it will take much more rain to change conditions more thoroughly. According to the Predictive Services National Interagency Fire Center, drier-than-usual conditions will continue to pose significant wildland fire potential here until later in the month, when an expected change in weather pattern will hasten the end of fire season with statewide heavy precipitation that normally occurs in late August.

There is still time to wring some fun out of what remains of the summer. Until fire conditions reach less urgent levels, we encourage anyone venturing outdoors to remember that a weekend of rain has not washed away the need to be careful with fire.

Predictive Services wildland fire potential outlook:

predictiveservices.nifc.gov/outlooks/monthly_seasonal_outlook.pdf