Where is wildfires most likely to occur

Their sheer size makes them very hard to control, even with attacks from the ground, the air, and specialized vehicles. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Admission Essay. Ben Davis April 27, Where in the world are Wildfires most common? Where did forest fires occur? Which are the areas more prone to forest fire? Where do wildfires naturally occur?

What is the main causes of forest fires? How can we prevent natural wildfires? How can we fix wildfires? There are many subcategories that fall under the general definition of a wildfire, including brush fires, bush fires, desert fires, forest fires, grass fires, hill fires, peat fires, vegetation fires, or veld fires. The presence of charcoal in fossil records show that wildfires have been present on earth virtually since plant life began. Many wildfires are caused by lightning strikes, and many more are caused accidentally by human activity.

The most noted areas on Earth for wildfire include the vegetated areas of Australia, Western Cape of South Africa and throughout the dry forests and grasslands of North America and Europe. Wildfires in forests and grasslands in North America are particularly prevalent in the summer, fall and winter, especially during dry periods with an increase in dead fuels and high winds.

Such periods are, in fact, called the wildfire season by fire control experts. Wildfires are especially dangerous today, as rising earth temperatures combine with urban expansion into wooded areas creates the potential for tragedy.

In the U. A wildfire started by lightning or other causes no longer will simply burn a segment of forest or prairie, but may well also take dozens or hundreds of homes along with it. Western U. Because of urban creep into existing forests, forest fires can often lead to property damage and have the potential to cause human injury and death.

The term "wildland-urban interface" refers to the growing zone of transition between developing areas and undeveloped wildlands. It makes fire protection a major concern for state and federal governments. Human strategies for controlling wildfires have varied over recent decades, ranging from a "suppress at all costs" approach to a "allow all wildfires to burn themselves out" strategy.

At one time, human fear and aversion to fires caused professional fire control experts to make every effort to prevent fires and eliminate them immediately where they did occur. However, harsh lessons quickly taught that this approach caused a catastrophic build-up of brush, dense forests and dead vegetation that became the fuel for disastrously large fires when fires inevitably did occur.

In Yellowstone National Park, for example, decades of attempting to prevent and quell all wildfires led to the inferno of , when more than a third of the park was consumed by fire after many years of prevention caused a catastrophic buildup of dry tinder in the forests.

This and other such instances cause the U. Forestry Service and other fire control agencies to radically rethink their strategies shortly thereafter. The days when the iconic symbol of the Forestry Service, Smokey the Bear, painted an apocalyptic picture of forest fires are now gone.

Analyzing wildfire trends at the state level presents a slightly more nuanced picture. Between and , more acres burned across the U. That was driven largely by wildfire activity in Alaska, where over 20 million acres were consumed in June alone.

Other states follow more distinctive patterns. Florida, for instance, has seen several of its largest fires over the past two decades in May, while fires in Oklahoma has seen the most destruction in March. Between and , only 16 states saw acreage burned actually peak in June, July, or August. Still, wildfire activity in November is relatively rare across the country.

Only about two million acres burned in November over the 24 years represented in the U. Not only are they truly devastating tragedies, but they also represent a marked shift in wildfire patterns.

Due to a confluence of factors — including climate change and short-term weather patterns — wildfires are effectively becoming a year-round threat in California.