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Science
Friday > Archives
> 1998
> July
> July 10, 1998:
Hour One: Fire!
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| It's been a busy season for the firefighters of the world. To date, over 450,000 acres of land have been burned in Florida - and the Sunshine State isn't alone. Fires have also been burning out of control in Indonesia, Canada, and Russia. Texas and Louisiana have had their skies darkened by a thick cloud of smoke floating across the border from Mexican fires. Parts of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Brazil, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Congo, and Senegal have been scorched and blackened as well. | | What has caused so many fierce fires? One reason, some meteorologists say, is El Nino. The unusual weather patterns of El Nino kept the past winter unusually warm and moist in Florida. Those conditions allowed grasses and shrubs to grow much more rapidly than they would have otherwise. But in the late spring and early summer, the moisture dried up, and as record high temperatures hit the state of Florida, the excess foliage dried up as well. Florida's frequent thunderstorms continued, but they dropped less rain - and the lightning associated with the storms providing many fire-starting sparks. | 
Smoke Plumes above North Central Florida
(image Stockli/Sutton, NASA) | But there is another reason that this summer has been so firey. In some places, over-logging of rainforest lands is to blame. As the dense canopy of trees is removed, sunlight can get in to dry out the normally moist forest floor. In addition, removing trees from the rainforest interrupts a delicate cycle biological cycle that normally keeps the forests dripping wet. As more people, often driven by economic pressures, begin to clear rainforest land, fires become harder and harder to stop.
On this hour of Science Friday - how people and weather combine to set forests alight.
Guests:
Ronald Myers
Director, Fire Management and Research Program
Nature Conservancy
Talahassee, FL
Tom Peterson
Research Meteorologist
National Climate Data Center
Asheville, NC
Adriana Moreira
Assistant Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center
President, Institute of Environmental Research for Amazonia
Brasilia, Brazil
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Florida's Forest Protection Bureau
National Interagency Fire Center
NASA Fire Monitoring by Satellite
Effects of Biomass Burning (BIBEX) |
