Drought, wind, and debris from recent hurricanes are stoking fires
across the US
[March 29, 2025]
By TAMMY WEBBER
In North Carolina, wildfires stoked by unusually dry air and debris from
last year’s Hurricane Helene are burning out of control. In Florida,
there are dozens of blazes, including one that scorched about 42 square
miles in Miami-Dade County. And they continue to burn in Oklahoma, where
four people have died this month due to wind-driven fires. Those states
were just three of eight where large fires were being reported on
Friday.
Some 14,800 wildfires have burned 1,105 square miles so far this year —
well above the 10-year average, according to data released Friday by the
National Interagency Fire Center. Most devastating were the Los Angeles
wildfires in January, fueled by dry vegetation and howling winds, that
destroyed entire neighborhoods.
Wildfires have happened with such frequency in recent years that many
U.S. fire officials say there is no longer a “fire season,” which
traditionally ran from late spring through the fall. That is because
climate change, caused by the burning of fuels like gasoline and coal,
has raised average global temperatures, creating drier conditions that
allow wildfires, which are mostly mostly caused by humans, to burn
longer and more intensely.
While major fires often happen early in the year — in February 2024,
Texas experienced the largest wildfire in state history — this year is a
bit unusual “because we’re seeing it happen in so many places,” said
Brad Rippey, a U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist who monitors
drought.
This week, 45% of the country is in drought, when historically it's
around 20% at any given time, Rippey said. That dried out lots of fuel
just waiting for a spark — from freeze-dried grasses in the southern
Plains to downed trees and brush from hurricanes that ravaged parts of
the southeast and southern Appalachians in recent years.
The National Interagency Fire Center's significant wildfire outlook
notes that several states still have debris from hurricanes Laura, Ida,
Debby and Idalia in the past five years, as well as from ice storms and
other severe weather.
Add in gusty winds and low humidity, “and you’ve got a pretty ripe
situation for wildfires,” Rippey said.
In Hurricane Helene-devastated North Carolina, power lines downed by
strong winds have been blamed for two of three large fires that have
burned for more than a week in an area where the mean relative humidity
this month has been the lowest on record, officials said. Impassable
areas and lots of toppled trees are making it difficult to reach intense
and erratic fires that are spreading rapidly because of high winds and
dry weather.
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Firefighter John Ward works to control the Black Cove Fire, March
26, 2025, in Saluda, N.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce, File)
Many roads have either been covered with storm debris or "they have
just been completely washed away,” said North Carolina Forest
Service spokesman Philip Jackson, who said the fire danger could
plague the state for years as more debris dries out.
Much of Florida also is in drought, contributing to an
earlier-than-normal fire season that included a massive brush fire
in Miami-Dade County that at one point hindered travel to and from
the Florida Keys.
That fire is 95% contained while dozens of smaller fires continue to
burn, according to the Florida Forest Service. Many counties are
under red flag warnings, meaning conditions are favorable for fires
to occur.
West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina also
report large wildfires.
The greatest wildfire potential is in the southeast and the southern
Plains, and will be significant into April in most of Texas and
parts of New Mexico and Arizona, as well as several southeastern
states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
La Nina — a periodic cooling of the Pacific Ocean that can shift the
jet stream and lead to cooler, drier air — might have affected
conditions in the southern U.S., said Tim Brown, director of the
Western Regional Climate Center.
But there also has been long-term drying in the southwest as
temperatures overall increase with global warming, said Rippey, who
has monitored drought for more than 25 years. Warmer temperatures
have led to more erratic precipitation that tends to fall more
heavily in short periods, leading much of it to run off rather than
soak into the ground.
“I do think that contributes to more wildfires,” he said.
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