Monsoon rains dampen wildfire fears
Fire officials say dangerous period nearing end
With New Mexico’s monsoon weather pattern entering full throttle this week, state fire officials say the dangerous period for wildland fires is nearing its end.
“We’ve been lucky so far this year. Arizona got hit pretty hard,” said Julie Anne Overton of the Santa Fe National Forest. “Once the monsoon season arrives, we go to a lower alert level.”
So far in 2017, the state has seen about 20 wildfires, which have burned some 60,000 acres, the smallest number of fires in years and a huge contrast to the drought year of 2011, when the state lost 1.2 million acres to 1,800 fires, according to data compiled by the State Forestry Division.
The wetter weather also means that the U.S. Forest Service can monitor fires sparked by lightning and let them burn dense areas that need thinning, as long as communities remain safe.
That’s what’s happening this week with a fire started on Peggy Mesa, approximately two miles northwest of Gilman Tunnels in the Jemez Ranger District, The fire so far has burned 600 acres in an area that hasn’t seen a burn in several years, and the blaze is being used to take out dense underbrush that would cause a more serious fire in a drier year.
“The lightning-caused Peggy Fire is being managed to promote forest health and habitat diversity while removing heavy fuel loads on this landscape that has not seen beneficial low-intensity fire in several years. These actions will further reduce the risk of future catastrophic wildfire,” Overton said in a news release.
She added that fire crews are buffering areas around the Peggy Fire and keeping watch over known archaeological and cultural sites. “Fire crews are working with forest archaeologists to protect these sites by implementing a buffer around them,” Overton said.
Another lightening-caused fire has burned 50 acres in the Carson National Forest, about five miles southeast of the community of Canjilon, east of U.S. 84, east of Forest Road 137. That fire started July 18 and is being monitored. The Carson National Forest has closed portions of Forest Road 42 in the El Rito Ranger District out of concern for potential flooding in the recent Bonita Fire burn scar.
And in the Pecos area, a 7-acre fire, also started by lightning, is snaking through the Cow Creek area, which was burned in the 2000 Viveash Fire.
It may seem counterintuitive that fires can start from a storm, but often the spark from lightning hits a dead tree, which is dry and more vulnerable to combustion, and the flames advance despite the rain, Overton said.
The National Weather Service is calling for heavy rains starting Wednesday night in most of Northern New Mexico with an inch or more of moisture expected in Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Mora and Las Vegas, N.M., and just under that in the Rio Rancho-Albuquerque corridor.
A drying and warming trend is expected for the weekend with another front moving through Tuesday.