Wild fires in the West, Why?

[SouthernDem2004]

Why does the West portion of this country have so many forrest fires when the Eastern and Southeastern portions do not? I have been to a few Western states,even some on the coast and they seem as green as the South yet they seem to catch on fire every year.

[Richard D]

1. Big reason . . .

. . . is after a wet winter, we have hot very dry summers. Then come the Santa Ana winds which fan the flames into an inferno. 50-60 mph high temperature winds that have close to zero humidity.

[SouthernDem2004]

2. Makes sense, thanks. We have almost 100% humidity here all

the time and nothing ever burns for long.

[Coventina]

3. We also have a lot more uninhabited land

So by the time a fire gets seen, it's already an inferno.

[lonestarnot]

4. Wind also drys to land to a blaze... Blaze Santana NPR...

[Kali]

5. a little geography lesson might help

check area (size), check rainfall amounts, check land ownership status (relates to management), then examine your statement a bit. If you actually look on a map you will see that it is very rare to have a fire in the same EXACT place more often than every ten years or so.

Many of the "western" fires are in areas that haven't had a fire in over 100 years - the result of good intentions by Smokey et al but misguieded ones nevertheless.

Some of these fires are more rangeland (grass and shrub) than "forest" fires as well.