| Radio programs for the week of 21 February 2000 (fe00221 - fe00225) | For more
information: Florida Division of Forestry Home Page Wildfire Season Forecast -- Florida Divison of Forestry El Niņo Research, Forecasts and Observations -- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) |
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Florida Wildfires and the La Nina Effect I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. Florida firefighters expect a busy season with forest fires, in part, because of La Nina. While the better known El Nino is warmer than average Pacific ocean temperatures, La Nina is cooler than average Pacific temperatures -- the current condition. Meteorologist Scott Goodrick watches La Nina for Florida's Division of Forestry (Scott Goodrick, Meteorologist, Florida Division of Forestry)... "It shifts the winter storm track to the north so that most of the storms coming in from the Pacific go in at the Pacific northwest. And they never really drop down into the southeastern part of the United States." With those storms staying north, weather in Florida is warmer and drier... "That kind of cuts us off from that supply of rainfall that you'd get associated with those storms. So it leads to a pretty dry winter across much of the southeast, particularly for Florida." And with dry weather comes the risk and expectation of wildfires... "Florida shows a very direct relationship between wildfires -- acres burned -- and the sea surface temperature in the Pacific. We see increased wildfire activity. And it's largely related to these dry conditions." For more information visit FloridaEnvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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 fe00222New Information on an Old Climate Pattern I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. Forest fires in Florida are expected to be worse than average this year, in part, because of cool temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. Called La Nina, this effect is not as well publicized as the warm ocean effect called El Nino. Vernon Kousky is a research meteorologist (Vernon Kousky, Research Meteorologist, Climate Prediction Center, NOAA)... "La Nina is only beginning in the mid 80s that people began to study it. And it's only recently that people began to accurately forecast it. So it is a rather recent thing for the public." Only recently known by the public, La Nina's effects are easily seen through history... "As far as the historical record goes back -- and that's a good 400 or 500 years -- there are occurrences of both La Nina and El Nino. And we suspect that they go much farther back in history than that." At present, La Nina is expected to create dangerous fire conditions for Florida... "La Nina favors dry and warmer than normal conditions all the way from the southwestern United States, across and along the Gulf coast states and into the southeast, including Florida." Researchers have learned much about La Nina and El Nino, but still find little mysteries... "The variability from one event to the next and how it impacts the circulation is something that we still haven't gotten a complete grasp of yet. We're hoping that these models on the supercomputers will help us in that regard." For more information visit FloridaEnvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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| fe00223 Fighting Fire with Fire I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. As the climate effect called La Nina brings a warmer, drier winter to Florida, Forestry workers are getting ready for a busy wildfire season. Part of their preparation is prescribed fires -- literally burning off dry vegetation before it starts a wildfire. Gerry LaCavera is a wildfire mitigation specialist (Gerry LaCavera, Wildfire Mitigation Specialist, Florida Division of Forestry)... "There was a long period of time where we didn't actively do prescribed burnings. We've gotten back into that as we realized that we needed to control this undergrowth in order for the regular species -- the dominant species of Florida ecological life -- to thrive once again." Because of the way they start and spread, these prescribed fires burn cooler that wildfires... "We can control the amount of damage that's done in an environment, we can control how hot the fire gets, and keep it within a prescribed area." This unusually dry winter is aggravating an existing problem with dry forest fuels... "In some cases, these fuels haven't burned in 15 years. And we're seeing duff that's accumulated -- those are the pine needles and vestiges of palm fronds and things that accumulate on the ground -- we see that to be a foot and a half deep in some places and that creates a very, very high fire danger.". For more information visit FloridaEnvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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| fe00224 Prescribed Fires and a Healthy Ecology I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. Florida forestry officials are preparing for a bad wildfire season from dry, warm weather this winter. To head off wildfires before they start, prescribed burns will be staged statewide to burn off some of what would otherwise be wildfire fuel. Gerry LaCavera is with the Florida Division of Forestry (Gerry LaCavera, Wildfire Mitigation Specialist, Florida Division of Forestry)... "A wildfire can get so hot that it actually burns the roots the subsurface, the soil that's there, and virtually lays barren that landscape so that nothing can grow on it for a considerable amount of time. Prescribed fires on the other hand, you can go back the next week and see the area greening up." That "greening up" is actually a benefit from the prescribed fires... "You'll see the animals in there feeding on the seeds and some of the things that've already popped up. And you'll see deer and some of the other wildlife grazing through there on the new shoots that're coming up. Three months later in some places, it's very hard to even tell that a prescribed fire was lit there." And some of Florida's plantlife actually depends on fires... "A lot of the plants we have need wildfires, either to open up seed pods, allow them to send new shoots up, to clear land for their seeds to be able to germinate and things like that so that the plant life can continue to propagate and flourish."
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| fe00225 The Paradox of Dry Weather Firefighting A dry, warm winter has firefighters expecting wildfires. To head off these fires, forestry officials are planning prescribed burns to reduce the amount of dry vegetation available to fuel wildfires. But the dry weather that makes prescribed burning necessary, might also stand in its way. Gerry LaCavera is a wildfire mitigation specialist (Gerry LaCavera, Wildfire Mitigation Specialist, Florida Division of Forestry)... "Every prescribed burn that we have has a very precise set of parameters, that if those parameters are not met, we don't burn. Or if during the burn those parameters are exceeded -- for instance if the wind were to change or the humidity were to change significantly -- we shut the burn down." Those parameters take into consideration our unusually dry and warm winter... "The drier the conditions, the harder it is to do a safe burn, and the more manpower and equipment we need out there to be sure that the fire stays in the prescribed area." Division of Forestry Meteorologist Scott Goodrick watches the paradox with caution (Scott Goodrick, Meteorologist, Florida Division of Forestry) "Conditions are already pretty dry statewide. And you really start having to think about if it's a good thing to be going out there and lighting that match to start that prescribed fire. You don't want your prescribed fire to turn into a wildfire." For more information visit FloridaEnvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
