Latest news with #NIFC
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Vegetation fire breaks out near SLO County lake
This is a developing story. Check back to for updates. To get breaking news alerts, click here A vegetation fire broke out near Oso Flaco Lake on Monday afternoon, according to the emergency app Watch Duty. The fire was reported south of the Oceano Dunes at 3:38 p.m, according to the app. At that time it had a potential for three acres, but no structures were threatened. The fire was pushed by the wind, but as of 6 p.m., it had only burned one acre and forward progress had been stopped, the app said. Meanwhile, shortly after, another fire ignited in rural SLO County near the Carrizo Plain National Monuent. The Miranda Fire burned 5.45 acres, according to Watch Duty. This map shows wildfires that have been updated within the past 7 days from the Integrated Reporting of Wildland-Fire Information (IRWIN) and the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). The larger the circle, the larger the wildfire by acres. Data is from the US Department of the Interior, Office of Wildland Fire, IRWIN, NIFC, NASA, NOAA and ESRI. Open Steve Wilson swilson@
NBC News
28-03-2025
- Climate
- NBC News
Wildfires and deadly flash floods batter the South
Wildfires are threatening homes across the Carolinas. The Table Rock Complex Fire in South Carolina is the 'highest priority fire right now in the country,' according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). Fire crews battling the blazes in spite of the low humidity and debris left behind from Hurricane Helene. In Texas, pounding rain in the Rio Grande Valley has led to flash floods that have killed at least three people. NBC News' Marissa Parra reports from the hot 28, 2025
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Albuquerque center housing ‘critical' wildfire dispatch on DOGE termination list as fire risk grows
The National Interagency Fire Center's March fire weather outlook for North America, showing most of New Mexico with above normal fire conditions. The Albuquerque office for the Albuquerque Interagency Dispatch Center is on the list of lease terminations announced by Elon Musk's DOGE. (Photo Courtesy NIFC) As Albuquerque and the rest of the state gear up for another wildfire season, a 22,000-square-foot building housing a wildfire dispatch center is on the list of lease terminations announced by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. The building at 2113 Osuna Road Northeast in Albuquerque is the office for the Cibola National Forest Supervisor and also the headquarters of the Albuquerque Interagency Dispatch Center, which coordinates fire response among dozens or potentially hundreds of people from different agencies responding to a wildfire. According to the local broker for the lease between California-based EKF Properties LLC and the United States Forest Service, the property is the same one mentioned in the DOGE lease termination list. Property tax records also show the building has the same square footage as the one on the DOGE list. Emails and calls to the dispatch center or the National Interagency Fire Center, which oversees the dispatch center, were not returned or were returned undeliverable Tuesday. Several federal agencies, including the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, cooperate with the dispatch center, but did not respond to a request for comment. DOGE includes Carlsbad WIPP office on list for termination New Mexico State Forestry is also a partner. Forestry Spokesperson George Ducker declined to comment on the potential closure of the dispatch center but, in an emailed statement, called its work 'critical' and 'paramount' for successful wildfire suppression. Dispatch centers coordinate fire suppression efforts between federal, state and tribal agencies, including monitoring radio traffic between hand crews, and air support. They also facilitate communications between incident command during larger and more complex wildfires, Ducker said. 'This kind of coordination is critical during emergencies where homes, lives and natural resources are at risk from wildfire,' Ducker said. 'Because each wildfire requires an all-hands response, and that response can include from 100-1,000 people, maintaining good communication between all the different resources is paramount.' The Albuquerque dispatch center, one of six in the state, covers the state's biggest city, as well as hundreds of square miles in Central New Mexico, stretching south toward Truth or Consequences, west to Zuni Pueblo and east to Encino. Communications about wildfires that spark in that area, regardless of agency, flow through the dispatch center, as well as communications about ongoing prescribed burns. The center also provides predictive services and intelligence to support incident command and on-the-ground wildland firefighters, according to its website. Cutting wildfire infrastructure, including placing the Cibola Forest Supervisor's office on the termination list, is a bad idea, said U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján in a statement to Source New Mexico. Are you an employee or former employee at the dispatch center, Cibola National Forest or other national forests in New Mexico? Reach out to reporter Patrick Lohmann securely on Signal at Plohmann.61 or by using this link. 'Wildfire season in New Mexico is already here, and cutting firefighting infrastructure at this critical moment is reckless and dangerous. Musk and Trump's decision to dismantle these resources — especially after the state's largest wildfire that was ignited by the federal government — puts lives, homes, and communities at risk,' he said in an emailed statement. Much of New Mexico, including the area the Albuquerque dispatch center monitors, has been under a Red Flag warning this week, as continued drought and high winds create extreme fire risk throughout the state. A mid-February wildfire outlook from the National Interagency Fire Center shows worsening long-term fire conditions through April here. The NIFC typically provides region-specific wildfire outlooks on the first of each month, but it has not yet published its prediction for March.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
US wildfire data misused following devastating LA wildfires
"Acreage lost to wildfires in the United States fell sharply over a century, despite far more fires deliberately lit. The number of wildfires is not rising, a fake claim based on climate propaganda," a January 27, 2025 post on X by Australian author Peter Clack claims. In his post, Clack shares a chart -- initially crafted by previously debunked climate-skeptic Anthony Watts -- created by combining official statistics (archived here) currently visible on the US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) covering 1983 to the present -- which show an upward trend in US wildfires -- with unofficial data covering a longer timeframe. Similar narratives have previously circulated on social media, purporting official data has been manipulated to exaggerate observed historical trends. The charts suggest acreage lost peaked around 1930 at levels much higher than in recent years. But the NIFC clearly states on its website: "Prior to 1983, the federal wildland fire agencies did not track official wildfire data using current reporting processes. As a result, there is no official data prior to 1983 posted on this site." US Department of Agriculture Forest Service Research ecologist, Karen Short (archived here), reported on bias and inconsistencies in older statistics in a 2015 paper (archived here). Millions of acres of intentional burns in the United States used to be included as part of the annual estimates of wildfire activity on unprotected lands, she noted. In particular, she pointed to prescribed burns that are not currently considered or tracked as wildfires under current criteria but were included in estimates of the acres lost to fire in three southeastern states. The US Bureau of Land Management also told AFP that the data prior to 1983 is not reliable and said recent datasets point to concerning signs of more intense fire seasons in the country. Between 1983 and 2004, an average of fewer than 4 million acres burned per year, but in recent decades more than 6 million acres burned annually even though the number of wildfires did not substantially increase, according to the US Bureau of Land Management. During that period, a slight "reduction in number of fires but increase in acres burned shows a growing trend of larger fires that have become more difficult to suppress," Brian Hires, a spokesman for the agency, told AFP on February 5. Propagation speed is another key factor in tracking how warming trends impact fire seasons in the US, scientists say (archived here). Fires get supercharged by warming trends as vegetation transitions to more flammable fuels amid weather whiplash -- a growing phenomenon documented in California (archived here). Numbers predating 1983 "should be treated very carefully and skeptically," Keith Weber, a wildfire researcher at Idaho State University, told AFP on February 4. "Fire frequency, fire size, and the number of megafires (100,000 acres or more) is trending upward," he explained. Human-induced warming has led to longer fire seasons, increasing the risks of wildfire including in the western United States (archived, here). However, he noted, while climate and weather "can and do play a role, so does decades of past fire suppression (resulting in fuel stockpiles), invasive grasses, and land management practices" that have also contributed to fueling wildfires. The Palisades and Eaton fires that ravaged Los Angeles County were the most destructive in the history of the second-largest US city, burning some 37,000 acres (150 square kilometers). The blazes killed about 30 people and displaced thousands more, with hundreds of billions of dollars in estimated damage to property and more than 10,000 homes destroyed. AFP has debunked other misleading claims about the California wildfires.
AFP
10-02-2025
- Science
- AFP
US wildfire data misused following devastating LA wildfires
Following devastating Southern California blazes in January 2025, a post on X claimed US acreage lost to wildfires is decreasing compared with historical data. This is misleading; scientists say records prior to 1983 are unreliable and that climate change in recent years has created conditions for more intense, fast-spreading blazes in the United States. "Acreage lost to wildfires in the United States fell sharply over a century, despite far more fires deliberately lit. The number of wildfires is not rising, a fake claim based on climate propaganda," a January 27, 2025 post on X by Australian author Peter Clack claims. In his post, Clack shares a chart -- initially crafted by previously debunked climate-skeptic Anthony Watts -- created by combining official statistics (archived here) currently visible on the US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) covering 1983 to the present -- which show an upward trend in US wildfires -- with unofficial data covering a longer timeframe. Similar narratives have previously circulated on social media, purporting official data has been manipulated to exaggerate observed historical trends. The charts suggest acreage lost peaked around 1930 at levels much higher than in recent years. Image A screenshot of an X post taken on February 6, 2025 But the NIFC clearly states on its website: "Prior to 1983, the federal wildland fire agencies did not track official wildfire data using current reporting processes. As a result, there is no official data prior to 1983 posted on this site." artment of Agriculture Forest Service Research ecologist, Karen Short (archived here), reported on bias and inconsistencies in older statistics in a 2015 paper (archived here). Millions of acres of intentional burns in the United States used to be included as part of the annual estimates of wildfire activity on unprotected lands, she noted. In particular, she pointed to prescribed burns that are not currently considered or tracked as wildfires under current criteria but were included in estimates of the acres lost to fire in three southeastern states. More acres, faster burns The US Bureau of Land Management also told AFP that the data prior to 1983 is not reliable and said recent datasets point to concerning signs of more intense fire seasons in the country. Between 1983 and 2004, an average of fewer than 4 million acres burned per year, but in recent decades more than 6 million acres burned annually even though the number of wildfires did not substantially increase, according to the US Bureau of Land Management. During that period, a slight "reduction in number of fires but increase in acres burned shows a growing trend of larger fires that have become more difficult to suppress," Brian Hires, a spokesman for the agency, told AFP on February 5. Propagation speed is another key factor in tracking how warming trends impact fire seasons in the US, scientists say (archived here). Fires get supercharged by warming trends as vegetation transitions to more flammable fuels amid weather whiplash -- a growing phenomenon documented in California (archived here). Numbers predating 1983 "should be treated very carefully and skeptically," Keith Weber, a wildfire researcher at Idaho State University, told AFP on February 4. "Fire frequency, fire size, and the number of megafires (100,000 acres or more) is trending upward," he explained. Human-induced warming has led to longer fire seasons, increasing the risks of wildfire including in the western However, he noted, while climate and weather "can and do play a role, so does decades of past fire suppression (resulting in fuel stockpiles), invasive grasses, and land management practices" that have also contributed to fueling wildfires. The Palisades and Eaton fires that ravaged Los Angeles County were the most destructive in the history of the second-largest US city, burning some 37,000 acres (150 square kilometers). The blazes killed about 30 people and displaced thousands more, with hundreds of billions of dollars in estimated damage to property and more than 10,000 homes destroyed. AFP has debunked other misleading claims about the California wildfires.
