Rain Helping Bring A Mild Spring Wildfire Season

The local Tennessee Forestry Service says the rain has helped bring a mild spring wildfire season.

Forester Jim Dale said it should continue as long as the region gets some consistent warmth.

“If we can get some warm weather here and stabilize the temperatures, those humidities will tend to stay higher during the day and we will have more moisture in the soil,” Dale said. “Combined with that, we will get leaf out on our trees, which will help hold moisture in the soil as well.”

Some areas to our South have had some fairly decent sized wildfires, but generally it has been a good spring wildfire season, Dale said.

Dale says the drought index monitor has bottomed out this spring. The index ranges from zero to 800 and assesses the amount of moisture in the deep duff of the upper layers of the soil.

A range of zero would indicate a point of no moisture deficiency.

“We are down to 32 now and it’s looking pretty good,” Dale said. “We just need some warm weather and then I think we can pretty well put the spring fire season to rest, hopefully by the middle part of May.”

Unless a summertime drought occurs, foresters won’t be worrying about local wildfires until the middle of Octrober.