Weather conditions such as wind, temperature and moisture play a key role when it comes to forest fires. Areas that are affected by drought may be extremely vulnerable, due to the hot and dry climate. The moisture level within the soil can determine how hot and how long the fire will burn, where wind can cause the fire to intensify and spread. The current temperature may also determine how hot, far and long the fire will continue to burn. We all know that weather can either help control the fire, or it can work against the fire, causing it to spread and intensify. But what very few individuals know is that the fire itself can actually affect the weather, and not just locally, but the entire ecosystem; making it a worldwide issue.
A fire contains carbon dioxide and in extreme cases, when the carbon dioxide levels mix with the moisture levels within the environment, it can produce carbonic acid or acid rain. In the Western hemisphere, it is reported that an increase of temperature occurred with the construction of more forest fires, linking it with global warming. Resulting in higher and more intense temperatures within the spring and summer months.
The National Science Foundation concluded that a fire’s potency and prevalent impacts on the ecosystem. Such as climate change, have been taken too lightly. According to their report, the quantity of carbon dioxide discharged into the environment, totals to fifty percent of that developed by the burning of fossil fuels. The smut or black carbon that discharges from a fire into the environment is also a factor when it comes to global warming. Even plant life plays a role in global warming when it comes to forest fires. Whenever plant life burns, the discharge of stored carbon escalates global warming. Therefore, the more fires that burn, the more global warming increases, which also leads to more fires. It’s a cycle that is effecting the global ecosystem.
Where local weather is concerned, fires can also impact your daily forecast. The weather and the fire can alter each other within the same time frame depending on a few key elements. The strength, the size of the fire and your local environment conditions. Large fires are a creation of greater weather systems, which have impacted areas gradually as time passes. These fires are brought forth by dry or damp arctic fronts, or elevated based wind shifts coming from the hot, dry air of the South West region. Fires that elevate to altitude levels of twenty thousand feet or more are capable of producing lightning consisting of minor precipitation. Fires of a substantial size are commonly impacted by a greater scale in weather activity, but they can still prompt local weather conditions, while impacting the ecosystem expanding worldwide.
Forest fires and Mother Nature seem to hold each other hand when it comes to the impact on the environment, and researches have proven that humans are responsible for eighty percent of forest fires being set Nationwide. Therefore, it up to us to make fire safety a priority and work together in preserving the health of our ecosystem.
