by Don Moniak
September 28, 2022

Today the South Carolina Forestry Commission (SCFC) issued a media advisory urging “vigilance against wildfire as Hurricane Ian approaches,” and for people to postpone any outdoor burning.  The Forestry Commission is the only state agency responsible for suppressing all wildfires in unincorporated areas of the state—-an area of nearly thirteen million acres.

The risk of an uncontrolled wildfire might be the last thing on the minds of South Carolinians listening to a tropical storm forecast and watching scenes of Hurricane Ian battering Florida. But as SCFC Chief Darryl Jones pointed out in the news release, dry fuel conditions coupled with high winds have created  a “window of danger (that) might be short, but it is also very pronounced.” 

The second half of September was abnormally dry, with the National Weather Service reporting less than one-tenth of an inch of rain in the past two weeks across most of South Carolina and Georgia. 

One result are small, woody forest fuels as dry as levels found in arid portions of the Western U.S. “One hundred hour fuels,” defined as woody debris between one and three inches in diameter, are now generally below fifteen percent across South Carolina. 

Fuel moisture for “Ten Hour Fuels,” which are twigs from a quarter inch to an inch, is as low as levels measured in the Great Basin and West Texas. “Ten Hour Fuels” moisture also is an indicator of the dryness of the more combustible pine litter layer.

Adding to the dry fuel conditions are two days of increasingly strong winds ahead of the storm and below normal relative humidity. Wednesday’s minimum relative humidities dipped below 25 percent, and Thursday is forecast in the high thirties to low forties. Fifteen to thirty mile per hour winds are forecast prior to the advent of any moisture. 

Anybody igniting a fire in anticipation of rain could easily burn down a home or two long before any rain arrives to help control a wildfire.  South Carolina residents are well-advised to heed the fire warning from the Forestry Commission.

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References

Fuels and fire danger information is available at the National Interagency Coordination Center, https://www.nifc.gov/nicc/index.htm

South Carolina Forestry Commission fire information is available at:

https://www.scfc.gov/protection/fire-burning/