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A FIVE-YEAR RECORD of LIGHTNING STORMS and FOREST FIRES by H

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A FIVE-YEAR RECORD of LIGHTNING STORMS and FOREST FIRES by H This file was created by scanning the printed publication. Errors identified by the software have been corrected; however, some errors may remain. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW Editor, ALFRED J. HENRY - ._ ~ .~ ~ ~~ ~ VOL. 59, No. 4 CLoSmD JUNE3, 1931 W. B No. 1045 APRIL, 1931 IEBIJEDJULY 11, 1931 A FIVE-YEAR RECORD OF LIGHTNING STORMS AND FOREST FIRES By H. T. GISBOKNE,SILVICULTURIST [Northern Rocky Mountain Forest Experiment Station, hiissoula, Mont.] Acc.ording to the records compiled by the supervisors on other work cnn be nioved to locations more strategic, of the national forests in the northeiv Rocky Mountain for fire suppression, and additional men can be hired region, lightning has been responsible for a gre.ater spec,ifically for suc,h an emergency. But when a single number of fires, more burned area, more damage, and national forest of 600,000 acre.s, such as the Raniksu in more expense of suppression in this territory than all northern Idaho, is visit.ed without any warning by light- other causes of forest fires combined. Smokers, campers, ning storms, that in one da.p start over 150 forest fires, brush burners, incendiarists, lumbering operat.ions, and as occurred on July 12, 1926, no forest protective organ- railroads combined start annually an average of 379 fires izat,ion is able to expand fast enough to cope with the on these 23,000,000 acres of Federal forest land, but situation. Under such c.onditions several fires are certain lightning is credited with an annual average of 824 fires to be left without attention long enough for them to during the 10-year period, 1919 to 1928. In 1926, which become so large that they spread a.s ‘conflagrations is accepted as one of the worst seasons for lightning fires, through the crowns of the trees. One such crown fire 311,607 acres of Federal, State, and private forest land often burns over more area, destroys more timber, and, in Idaho and Montana were burned over by fires st8nrted after it drops to a ground fire and becomes approachable, by lightning. The damage on this area was evnluttted often costs more for its suppression than a hundred or at $3,572,000, while the Federal Government a,lone spent, eve.n a thousand other forest fires which are reached and approximatel $945,000 for fire suppression. extinguished before they have an opportunity to attain These condkons have long been recognized as one of such momentum. the major impediments to successful lumbering and Such occurrences make very clear the importance and forestry. As lumbering, which must depend in the future profitable application of warnings of lightning storms, upon forestry, is one of the basic industries in this see especially if the warnings could be made available two or tion of the country the economic importance of lightning three days in advance, and c,ould cover not only storm storms is obvious. It is apparent that no industry suh- occurrences but also storm fire-starting probabilities. jected to such a chance of loss as has been indicated can With suc.h warnings action could be taken that would in operate as cheaply and efficiently as it could if the danger nearly all cases reduce lightning fire damage and expense were fully understood and at least partially controlled. to nverysatisfactoryminimum. Evenat present,with the Early in 1922 the Northern Rocky Mountain Forest weathe.r predictions limit,ed to a period of 36 hours and Experiment Station corn-menced an investigation of with no indications contained in the forecasts concerning lightning storms, working in cooperation with the Forest the fire-starting characteristics of the storms, considerable Service administrative organization, which had studied progress is being made. Present investigations have the occurrence of lightning-caused forest fires ever shce contributed mate,rially toward more accurate forecasts by the national forests were created. The administratmire obtaining more detailed records of storni occurrence. study had localized the danger both in the and by area, They have also found (5) that the types of storms which but it had not attempted to investigate the storms which conmionly start many fires can be distinguished from the are the causes of these fires. The research project, types which do not start many fires. Furthermore, initiated in 1922, has been conducted for the purpose of methods have been developed for measuring forest in- assembling more and better information conce,rning t8he flaiiimnbility so that the danger of ignition and rapid occurrence and characteristics of these storms which spread can now be deternlined as a basis for administra- cause so much loss and expense. tive action (6). As Morrell has pointed out (11) the possibility of The data herewith presented add to previously pub- improving forest protection lies c.hiefly in reaching forest lished information on lightning storms in this region fires quickly and attacking them before they get large, largely through the increase in evidence on which the with an adequate and pro erly equipped crew of men. deductions are based. Some of the c,onclusionspreviously Forest fires can be attackeB with speed if t1ie.y are few in stated must now be slightly modified, but many are number, or even when numerous, if the forest protective greatly strengthened by these 14,754 reports covering a organization has a reasonably definite warning that suc.11 5-year period, as compared to the 3,500 reports for two fires are probable. If warnings are available, men engaged years used as a basis for the first report. Some new aspects of the situation are also apparent in this greater 1 The boldfsee figures in parentheses rcfer to literature citrd. volume of data. 81309-31--1 139 140 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW APRIL,1931 OCCURENCE OF STORMS over forested, mountainous areas, in contrast to their frequenc over low elevation, valley or plains stations One of the outstanding discoveries resulting from this such as gpokane, Ralispell, Helena, Lewiston, etc., where study is the knowledge that lightning storms are far more t,he regular Weather Bureau observations are made. frequent in the forested sections of this region than The large number of thunderstorm days reported is also previous records, largely obtained at low-elevation non- esplained by the fact that the Forest Service observers forest stations, had indicated. The present records, used in this study consisted largely of the lookout men which are most complete for July and August, less com- stationed on 270 or more high niountain tops continually plete for June and September, and fail entirely to cover scanning great areas and \vide horizons for the streamers the other eight months of each ear, give for the region as of smoke that locate forest fire,s. From these high points a whole an average of 88 thunB erstorm days each season, it is almost impossible for a thunderstorm to occur within for the five years studied, as follows: 1924, 85; 1925, 95; 30 or 40 miles of a station without being seen or heard by 1926, 83; 1927, 87; and 1928, 88 days. For this same the observer. It is probable that few, if any, storms es- region Alexander's compilation, (2) whichis quoted by niost cape detection during July and August, when these ob- meteorological authorities, records only 10 to 30 thunder- servatories are all occupied. storm days per year at individual Weather Bureau A fourth reason why the pre.sent data show more storm stations of the first order.2 days than indicated by other sourc.es of information may be that thunderstorms have been more frequent during FIG.1 the past few years. Such is the local opinion, but the MAP OF THUNDERSTORM OCCURRENCE. lookout-station records do not cover a sufiicient number of years to give either support or denial to this belief. ' When the mgional data obtained in this study are sub- divided into smaller units, such as groups of national forests, a marked reduckion in thunderstorm frequency is shown; yet even the totals surpass those based on obser- vations at low-elevation stations largely outside the forests. The frequency for these small groups of forests is shown by Figure 1 ; and Table 1 permits comparison of these figures with those resulting from carrying the sub- division down to individual national forests. TABLE1.-Relation of number of thunderstorm days lo number of lighhing fires per 100,000 acres for individual foresta and forest groups in the northern Rocky Mountain Region Thunderstorm days, by years 1 Firas per -100,OOO Group and forest acres 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 Average annually ---~-I I -- Average Group I: number Beaverhead __________ 41 61 45 41 43 0.3 Deerlodge.. ................................................. ........ .8 Helena ............... 21 1 28 I 33 32 28 1. 2 Avmge................................................... 256 1.0 ~ ~~ 28 2.6 AVERAGE NUMBER OF THUNDERSTORM DAYS EACH SUMMER. Group 11: fg ;; :2 19 28 .2 ~~3m~;.~~~~~~~~~/ 33 1.7 Mlssoula ............. 23 I 31 1 3 I 44 2539 FOR GROUPS Of NATIONAL FORESTS, BASED ON RECORDS 1 -- 1924-1928 INCLUSIVE FOR NORTHERN IDAHO AND WEST- Average.. ................................................. '43 2.0 ERN MONTANA AS A REGION THESE DATA INDICATE AN Group 111: Blackfeet ............. 15 20 28 35 36 27 6.8 AVERAGE OF AT LEAST dd THUNDERSTORM DAYS Cabinet .............. 9 27 1 24 44 40 28 4.7 YEAR. PER Flathead ............. 26 25 33 49 54 37 5.0 Kootenai ............. 14 41 43 40 34 9.1 Lo10 .................. 30 :?I 34 42 44 36 3.5 This large increase in storm occurrence, indicated by the Pend Oreille ......... 20 W 26 37 40 28 5.5 Average.. ..........1. ...................................... 62 6.0 Forest Service data, is partly explained by the fact that Group IV: the region has been treated as a unit, whereas Alexander's Clearwater..........
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