Can forest fires cause a drought?
Everyone knows that fires are a big concern during droughts, but can they also cause a drought elsewhere? I currently live just on the East side of the Canadian Rockies. All summer long fires have been burning in British Columbia and in Montana, and we've been down wind catching all of the smoke. We have not had a single significant day of rainfall all summer long. It rained a little only once overnight a few weeks back from what I can recall.
My best guess is that the smoke and heat from the fires is somehow drying out the air before it reaches the continental divide, preventing any kind of rain fall.
Can forest fires cause droughts significant distances downwind? If so, how?
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/16975. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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There is a huge high pressure ridge (588+DAM) that has been parked over a good share of the Intermountain West (centered in various parts of the Great Basin) all summer. Storms that ride over the ridge to the north and then come down on the east side of the clockwise circulation will be where the rainfall occurs. The smoke itself if anything will contain water vapor, and indeed pyroclastic clouds can cause rainfall in their vicinity. But as for drought downwind, no. Heat islands in cities can clearly change rainfall patterns (such as Atlanta), but not the smoke. The fire season has been very active (nifc.gov) on both sides of the border.
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/17010. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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