Dozens of other fires broke out in Georgia and North Western Carolina, which were both hard hit by Hurricane Helene. In some regions, fallen trees can act as fuel and promote the propagation of short and long -term fire, according to Virginia Iglesias, which studies the effects of climate variability on environmental social systems of the University of Colorado Boulder.
“After the hurricane, there were a lot of dead trees fallen on the ground, which allows the sun to reach the ground,” said Iglesias. “And with that, it is easier for desiccate biomass, promoting the fire if there is a ignition. It is in the short term. Another consequence of these fires is that they represent a problem of access for firefighters. So there are a lot of newspapers blocking the roads. »»
This happened last week in Polk County in North Carolina, where firefighters had trouble navigating between the fallen trees and contain a fire of nearly 500 acres in the region, Blue Ridge public radio reports. These fallen trees can be a nuisance of fire for years after a hurricane, especially in the Southeast, where dried pine needles are very fuels.
For example, in 2018, Hurricane Michael decimated approximately 1.3 million acres of long -leaved pine housing in Florida Panhandle, which Subsequently dried and fed Bertha Swamp Road’s fire in 2022 which burned more than 33,000 acres.
Some fire experts also fear that additional sunlight on the landscape can trigger plant growth such as rhododendron and mountain laurel in the southern appearances, which burn intensely if they set fire.
“And now we are full sun on these areas which, previously, have not obtained full light of the sun,” said Gary C. Wood, a retired worker for the North Carolina Forest Service who now coordinates Forest Fire Management Strategies for the Southeast Wildland Fire Leadership Council, said to post and courier. “So these things could really increase, in terms of growth, and this will have a potential impact from the point of view of the fight against fire.”
Fight fire with fire
While a large set of research clearly shows that climate change feeds more intense fires to the west, scientists are still going beyond the direct climate connection for the flames in the Southeast. But some studies show that warming implements conditions that forest fires thrive throughout the region.
“Dreams should become more intense and more frequent in the Southeast and many other regions of the country due to climate change,” said Iglesias. This could considerably increase the amount of forest burned in the southern appearances, according to a 2024 Study.
To fight against this, forest managers in this region often light planned fires, contained prescribed burns, which help eliminate dry plants before being able to feed larger underworld. However, there are a few roadblocks in this strategy. More than 50% of the 751 million acres of forest land in the United States are private, and these owners decide to manage their land. This means that government agencies are required to obtain the owners’ authorization before cleaning the trees slaughtered after a storm or allowing burns prescribed on their land. There is an increasing push of certain groups to help the owners in North Carolina to adopt this strategy of fire control, GRIST REPORTS.
Another hitch is that climate change could reduce the number of days when land managers can practice the burn prescribed in the Southeast, according to a 2024 Study. The vegetation must be dry enough to ignite and burn, but temperatures and winds must be moderately low to prevent the fire from becoming uncontrollable – conditions that become less predictable as global temperatures increase. As forest fires, prescribed burns can also release air pollution, which can negatively affect air quality. My colleague Lee Hedgepeth covered this problemwhich currently performs in Birmingham, Alabama.
At the same time, the Trump administration has Put the funding and hiring of gels on programs that support Forest Fire Fighting In recent weeks, leaving large expanses of the country which are not prepared to face large forest fires, according to experts.
