The Extreme Weather Conditions That Drove the Carolina Wildfires

This article is Recalin from Conversation Under a Creative public license.

Dozens of forest fires erupted throughout North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia in early March 2025 strong winds, abnormal dry conditions, low humidity merged with Kindle and deployment of fire.

The fires followed a year of weather in Carolinas, from a flash during the summer to a severe hurricane in September, then returning to drought again. Storms on March 5, 2025 helped overcome many fires that are still burning, but the firefighting season in the southeast began only. Fire experts at Wake Forest Lauren Lowan and Nick Corac put the fires and dry winter in the region in the context.

Why did Carolinas see many forest fires?

Most of the North and South Carolina have been abnormally dry or in moderate dehydration since no less than November 2024. Dry conditions are constantly dry during the dried winter, leaving fuel for forest fires.

When the Earth and vegetable cover are dry, all it takes is a thunderbolt or a human -made fire to start the wild fires.

Drought maps: North and South Carolina conditions from February 25, 2025. American Drought Observer

Map: American drought monitoring is jointly produced by the National Drought Center at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, the Ministry of Agriculture in the United States, and the National Oceanic Administration and Air cover. Map of courtesy ndmc.

Hurricanes tempted the area in the late summer of 2024, but before that, Carolinas was suffering from a flashing drought.

Flash dryness is severe dryness that develops rapidly due to lack of rain and dry conditions in the atmosphere. When the atmosphere is dry, it pulls water from the vegetation and soil, which leads to the dryness of the surface.

In August and September, the tropical storm Deby and Hurricane Helen caused widespread floods in the two states, but Carolinas received a few rains in the months that followed, leaving the winter of 2025 dryly dryly again.

How strange is like this in the region?

Fires are somewhat common in Carolinas. It is a natural part of the scene, and many ecosystems have evolved to rely on.

Meat -eating plants such as Venus Flytraps and Pitcher Pitcher depend on frequent fire activity to remove shrubs and other plants that will grow over and prevent light. Even some wildlife depends on the fire for its habitats and for food from a mixture of original plants that grow after the fire.