Initially published June 14, 2012

Outside of Georgia, the wildfires are hard to find information about, it can seem, using sources such as the internet, unless you know exactly where to look.  ABC [News] [June 12, 2012 or thereabout] says Georgia is one of the states that heads the list of states that are being ravaged by wildfire currently.


More accuracy of a description of the situation is there have been, or there are brushfires in  quantities, currently burning or were burning , but the size of these fires is minimum compared to for instance the current High Park, Colorado, that tries to stick his chest out.


{Satellite photos, and media coverage snapshots of fires that you see on image search results on the internet/online for wildfires fires in Georgia, are mostly photos from 2011.  Even if you enter 2012 in the search term, the computer is going to generate Georgia wildfires, combined with other information in 2012 that might not have anything to do with wildfires in 2012; so please be cautioned about this, and look closely at your query results if you are studying or researching the wildfire topic}




Now what has occurred earlier this year in Georgia is, cut copied and pasted, with color effects added, from the story 'Threat Of Wildfires Soars In Georgia
April 11, 2012 12:12 PM;'


ATLANTA (AP/WAOK) –  Forecasters warn the threat of wildfires is high across much of Georgia, and any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for high fire danger from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday.


The warning covers north and central Georgia, where winds are expected to gust up to 25 mph. Forecasters say humidity will be low, helping to create potentially dangerous fire conditions.
In metro Atlanta, brush fires poured smoke on interstates on Tuesday, [April 2012] causing poor visibility. Firefighters in DeKalb County battled blazes along I-20 and I-285.
[end of AP/WAOK story]


Practical information useful in understanding Georgia and wildfires 2012 and 2011:


Size of Wildfire
The Honey Prairie Fire: 310,000 acres, means that about 484 square miles burnt; now that means, if you were to draw a box around the fire, one side of each box is about 22 miles.  The fire was about 22 miles long and 22 miles wide.  


The size of the Honey Prairie Fire is a little bit more than TWICE the size of the High Park fire going on in Colorado right now.  


Another way of looking at it, is the High Park fire, near Fort Collins, CO, is about half the size of the Honey Prairie Fire.


Rarely is a fire in the exact shape of a box; the box illustration is to give an idea of what it is or was there to be contended with.


Size of the fire or wildfire is not everything, when determining whether or not it is a priority to fight, contain, and bring under control.  A fire small in acreage or number of feet squared area, such as an office building, can be a priority, if there are 10s of thousands, 10,000 people in there.


What Summer Weather Does
Summer weather in Georgia making it a hotbed for fires, is also because:
“When the sap starts rising, the soil gets drier and drier,” as the formerly dormant trees start pulling in water, said [...] interim district manager at the Georgia Forestry Commission’s Satilla District office near Waycross that covers 17 counties in Southeast Georgia." The quote here is from: '


Vegetation, New Plants, Wind, Downed Trees from Tornadoes, are Facilitators of Fire
From: 'More Wildfires Expected In 2012 [Wed., February 8, 2012 4:07pm (EST)]'
[...] the Georgia Forestry Commission says, trees downed in last year's North Georgia tornadoes also could present a fire hazard.

The Honey Prairie Fire in the Okefenokee Swamp last year burned over 300,000 acres and cost over $52 million.

The fire is currently dormant.
 
"Because of the unusually warm temperatures, we feel like the vegetation has continuously grown and added more fuel to wild-land fires."

But the Georgia Forestry Commission's Frank Sorrells says, new plants could be a problem.

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original: http://envirocomputer.blogspot.com/2012/06/georgia-wildfires-in-june-2012-where.html