Wildfires Continue to burn in several states / Historic Weather

As wildfires burn on and hundeds if not thousands of firefighters respond not all their safey issues are fire related.

Blaze at North Carolina wildlife refuge burns 20,000 acres

Dry thunderstorms spark more fires in West Texas

Okefenokee fire nears 72,000 acres as it burns toward Florida

Wildfires prompt evacuations in 2 New Mexico communities

Historic month for wild weather in US

 

May 10, 2011 - 4:27PM  AP

US government meteorologists say April was a historic month for wild weather in the US, and it was not just the killer tornado outbreak that set records.
April included an odd mix of downpours, droughts and wildfires.
Six states - Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia - set records for the wettest April since 1895.
The US also had the most hectares burnt by wildfire for April since 2000.
Add to a record 305 tornadoes from April 25-28, which killed at least 309 people and the most tornadoes ever for all of April: 1875.
US scientists also looked for the fingerprints of global warming and La Nina on last month's deadly tornadoes, but could find no evidence to blame those often-cited weather phenomena.
Meanwhile, Texas and parts of several surrounding states are suffering through a drought nearly as punishing as some of the world's driest deserts, with much of the nation focused on a spring marked by historic floods and deadly tornadoes.
Some parts of Texas have not had any significant precipitation since August.
Bayous, cattle ponds and farm fields are drying up, and residents are living under constant threat of wildfires, which have already burnt across thousands of square kilometres.
Grass is so dry it crunches underfoot in many places and some ranchers are culling their herds to avoid paying supplemental feed costs.