Question for East Texas and Arkansas Firefighters

[LaFireEducator]

How bad has your brush fire call load been the past two months?

We have been averaging about 3 fires a day, usually less than an acre.

Today we just had a 700-900 acre fire which started out in the neighboring parish and then burned over into ours before it was contained.

We initially responded mutual aid but then had to pull many of our resources out to work the fire in our parish.

With the forecast for little if any rain and temps in the upper 90s throughout the week I suspect it is going to get worse before it gets better.

[L-Webb]

Been really dry and hot here too. Been getting hay fires...... YAAAAAAY

[hwoods]

And............

To see just what shape your area is in, look at http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html This is a good tool to have for both Planning and Monitoring current conditions...... Also, you have www.srh.noaa.gov/shv/?n=firewx which comes in handy.........

[LaFireEducator]

I've been using the new US Forest Service's assessment tool - wfas.com..

Right now it has us as moderate with most of southern/eastern Arkansas as well as most of Mississippi at high. I would suspect that this week's forecast, which is dry with the exception of a 10% chance of pop-up showers each day may push us into that classification as well.

We are currently 13" below normal rainfal and this summer has been hotter than usual.

I'll look at those other resources when I go in this morning. Thanks.

[LVFD301]

I've been using the new US Forest Service's assessment tool - wfas.com..

Right now it has us as moderate with most of southern/eastern Arkansas as well as most of Mississippi at high. I would suspect that this week's forecast, which is dry with the exception of a 10% chance of pop-up showers each day may push us into that classification as well.

We are currently 13" below normal rainfal and this summer has been hotter than usual.

I'll look at those other resources when I go in this morning. Thanks.

Use it a lot do you?

www.wfas.NET

[LaFireEducator]

Use it a lot do you?

www.wfas.NET

It's on my favorites.

Haven't noticed the .gov, .com or .net in quite awhile.

So shoot me.

[LaFireEducator]

Finally under a burn ban as of 9AM this morning.

The fire yesterday was the last straw.

That being said, we will still have residents who will burn, ban or not. And we'll still have folks who will throw ciggies from thier cars, so we'll probably drop down to just 1-2 fires a day. Hopefully.

[LaFireEducator]

Been really dry and hot here too. Been getting hay fires...... YAAAAAAY

I noticed this morning that much of Georgia was listed as "high" as well. Me thinks we're all gonna have an excitin' fall.

[hwoods]

Yeah..........

I noticed this morning that much of Georgia was listed as "high" as well. Me thinks we're all gonna have an excitin' fall.

Here Too..... We're drying out real quick after a soggy August......

[CaptOldTimer]

Here Too..... We're drying out real quick after a soggy August......

It is very dry here. The river is so low you can walk across it. Water restrictions are in place. Grass and leaves are so dry that they break and crunch when you walk on them.

Rain fall for the year is over 10 inches below normal.

We can't get rain. We need a tropical storm to drench us here and up in the higher ground.

The No Burn rule in place. Still getting ground cover fires.