2016 Fire Weather Summary

Main Fire Weather Impacts in the Huntsville Forecast Area in 2016

Alabama Forestry Commission Reported 763 wildfires in 2016
In the Huntsville Forecast Area 51% of the wildfires reported occurred in Dekalb County/Jackson County
40% of these wildfires occurred in Dekalb County

* A widespread drought developed in the middle of May of 2016 and worsened through the beginning much of July. This drought, after some brief relief later in August, became even more widespread and extensive. These conditions hit their peak between October and November of 2016. At this point all areas in northern Alabama and Southern Middle Tennessee were in a "Extreme" to "Exceptional" drought. The hardest hit drought areas of northern Alabama were in Southern Middle Tennessee and northeastern Alabama. For more information, please visit www.weather.gov/hun/2016_drought

The worst outbreak of large fires occurred during the weekend of November 13th (when the drought was near/at its peak). Several large wildfires were ongoing early in November (most notably an extremely devastating wildfire that burn through much of Gatlinburg). The Huntsville Forecast Area was dealing with a large wildfire that affected the Mentone area and locations in Dekalb county west of Rising Fawn area in Georgia. Below is an satellite image clearly showing the extensive nature of ongoing wildfires at that time.

A developing weak area of low pressure off the Carolina coast and a strong area of high pressure centered over west Virginia and Kentucky produced strong easterly winds across the Tennessee Valley and central Alabama. With strong easterly surface winds around 10 to 15 mph (produced by location of the surface high seen in the image below), extensive smoke advected into much of northern Alabama and Southern Middle Tennessee from GA, TN, and NC.

The advection of this smoke due to ongoing fires caused hazardous air quality conditions, as visibilities dropped to around 3 miles. An air quality alert was issued for the Huntsville/Decatur communities as a result. Some locations in northeastern Alabama dropped to around 1 mile. Smoke finally improved greatly by the 15th of November. Dry and dangerous fire weather conditions continued into 2017, despite some relief from heavier rainfall between November 28th into December, when several storm systems brought heavy rainfall to the Tennessee Valley.