Rain won’t douse drought

A weather pattern similar to last weekend may lead to an increased risk of wildfires across the region this weekend, a National Weather Service meteorologist said Monday.

The danger may be somewhat limited because of higher humidity and lower winds, meteorologist Aaron Tyburski said.

Temperatures are forecast to climb into the mid-70s by Friday with partly to mostly sunny skies.

"It will dry out, similar to last weekend. It will be a little less dry with a slightly higher humidity in the upper 20s to about 30 percent. The winds will be 10 to 15 mph Saturday and Sunday," Tyburski said.

Firefighters battled six wildfires last weekend, the largest being dubbed Sugar Run No. 1.

The Sugar Run fire scorched 297.9 acres. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, said Rick Meintel, a forest fire specialist supervisor for the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' Bureau of Forestry.

The fire danger increases in the spring as the sun and wind dry out leaves and brush on the forest floor. It will lessen when "green up" or "leaf out" occurs with new leaves growing and blocking out the sunlight, allowing more moisture to stay on the forest floor.

"People should not be burning before leaf out occurs," Meintel said.

Wildfires still will occur after leaf out, usually the first or second week in May, but leaves and brush don't burn as readily, Meintel said.

A quick inch of rain over several days is good for the short-term, but changing wind directions, sunny days and low humidity can cause the fire danger to quickly recover.

"It doesn't take much to dry things out," Tyburski said.

The humidity Saturday dropped to less than 15 percent, Meintel said.

"We had extreme fire behavior on Saturday," he said.

Meintel said the fire crews did an outstanding job in handling the Sugar Run fire.

"We have a very large number of people who actively train. As the incident commander, I just saw all the training pay off. Everything just clicked. We did it safely. With 150 to 200 firefighters on scene, we didn't have an injury, not even a person injured in a log trip," he said.

Mirror Staff Writer Mark Leberfinger is at 946-7462.