Wildfires are burning from south Florida into south Georgia, and the outlook suggests many more weeks of active fire conditions.
That’s the topic of today’s Speaking Of.
Florida Public Radio Meteorologist Andrew Wulfeck tells us how much rain we need in the Big Bend:
"This time of year we need about an inch of rainfall just to keep up with normal. So any week we go below an inch, we are actually adding onto that drought.
So basically the region from Panama City eastward towards Lake City and Live Oak on the I-10 corridor needs between 20 and 30 inches of rain above normal...just to end the drought."
Florida State Climatologist David Zierden is watching the wildfires. He says weather conditions are ideal for what’s happening now.
"You need a source of ignition and you need fuel. So we can have wildfires any year. But it's during times of drought especially exceptional drought like we're in right now, that they're much more difficult to control. That's about where we're at right now."
With these extremely dry conditions, we hear from Morgan Varner about the necessity of prescribed burns. He’s Director of Fire Research at Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy in Leon County.
"This is the literal epicenter of prescribed fire on the continent and really probably in the hemisphere. More prescribed fire takes place in south Georgia and north Florida than anywhere else, so wildfires are exceedingly rare (here).
We have for more than a century been a leader in prescribed fire on private lands.
On the south side of Tallahassee all the way to the coast, we have a large block of public lands, the nation's number one national forest for prescribed fire, the Apalachicola; and they're burning there for just the situation right now.
They're burning to reduce the potential for large wildfires, and they're also burning to protect rare and endangered species habitat."
Click LISTEN above to hear the entire conversation.
