The North Carolina Forest Service issued a statewide burn ban for North Carolina over the weekend. This means that it is illegal to burn leaves, branches or other plant material over 100 feet away from an occupied dwelling. This includes fireworks and campfires, but excludes portable gas stoves.
The ban follows a months-long drought in the state.
“I think a lot of people are surprised when they hear that this drought has now been going on for more than seven months, but it did start at the end of summer last year,” said Corey Davis, North Carolina’s assistant state climatologist.
State agencies, private landowners and tribes can preempt wildfires by conducting controlled burns. This entails selectively burning forested areas in advance of fire season to reduce fuel for out-of-control blazes. But these controlled burns can only happen when the forecast allows.
“The opportunities for prescribed burning are decreasing because of climate change,” Davis said. “It is getting too hot and too dry and too windy and just overall, too unpredictable to burn across a good chunk of the year.”
How did we get here?
Davis said that recent, rapid temperature swings have contributed to the state’s current burn ban. Charlotte had 10 days over 80 degrees in March, tying its previous record for the month. At the same time, the state has experienced frosty nights that have killed plants, creating more kindling for fire.
“That vegetation is still coming out of dormancy. It is still fairly dry in a lot of spots, especially when we haven't had the rainfall,” Davis said. “That’s why the environment is just ready to burn now.”
The timing couldn’t be worse as the spring wildfire season begins. Wildfires have already consumed over 7,000 acres in North Carolina, and it seems unlikely that conditions will improve.
“It's a little bit depressing looking at the April forecast, because it looks like it's going to be warm and it's going to be dry,” Davis said. “After this weekend, not a whole lot of great rain chances, it seems.”
People cause most wildfires in the state. A Marion resident started the over 400-acre Jumping Branch fire earlier this week when she threw a cigar out of her car window, news outlets report. This danger is made worse by the fact that North Carolina has the largest wildland-urban interface of any state. WUI is land where vegetation abuts human development.
“When it's this dry at this time of the year, that means something very small like that can have pretty big consequences,” Davis said.
