Dry weather in the Upper Cumberland means burn restrictions likely throughout this week.
Tennessee Forestry Division Assistant District Forester Joel Blackburn said humidity is unusually low throughout the Southeast region right now. Blackburn said humidity in the Upper Cumberland has been in the upper teens and anything below twenty-five percent is considered critical.
“Normally March is dry,” Blackburn said. “It’s odd for us to see humidities down in the teens and we’re starting to see that year after year so this is kind of brand new territory for us and we’re not sure why. It doesn’t matter which side of the global warming issue you stand on, you ought to catch this point towards a changing climate.”
Blackburn said recent rainfall has gotten some moisture into the soil but the fuels on top of the ground, such as leaves, are still very dry. Blackburn said he expects to see restrictions on burn permits until the rainfall expected to come at the end of this week.
“We’re monitoring weather, we’re trying to control fire currents through the permit system by not issuing permits on high fire danger days,” Blackburn said. “So there’s not a burn ban yet, it’s more of a burn permit restriction where we discourage burning. An official burn ban is more longer term, that could be ten days to two weeks.”
Blackburn said it is too early to tell if more restrictions will be necessary beyond this week. Blackburn said the region is not in a long-term drying trend yet and more rain showers should come in April.
“Cold fronts are still working out of the north, coming down as we’re transitioning to spring and those cold fronts do bring dry air with them and some wind,” Blackburn said. “So hopefully we’ll make that transition fully there in April and some of these cold fronts will slow down.”
Blackburn said dry weather can pose fire risks for this time of year even when temperatures are more moderate because the lack of leaves on trees allows sunlight to directly dry out any fuel on the ground.
