New Jersey faces unseasonably high number of wildfires as drought continues

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As the region faces severe drought and record-low rainfall, an unseasonably high number of wildfires have burned in New Jersey this fall.

The state’s Forest Fire Service has responded to more than 300 wildfires since Oct. 20 alone — that’s more than eight times the number of wildfires during the same timeframe last year, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Firefighters are currently battling three wildfires in Gloucester, Ocean and Burlington counties, and 100 households in Evesham Township were evacuated for several hours on Thursday.

New Jersey fire officials designated the fire risk as “extreme” throughout the state on Friday, as the region faced a Red Flag Warning triggered by high winds and low humidity. The U.S. Drought Monitor this week also upgraded much of South Jersey’s drought status from “severe” to “extreme.”

“It’s rather remarkable the number of fires that have erupted in this state, and elsewhere outside of New Jersey in the local areas, in the last couple of weeks,” said David Robinson, New Jersey State Climatologist at Rutgers University.

Wildfires are usually more frequent during the spring because the deciduous trees have yet to branch out and provide shade. The grass also has yet to moisten, and there’s a lot of brush left over from the fall.

However, record low rainfall, leading to the region’s driest conditions in the past 120 years, has increased the risk of wildfires this fall, Robinson said.

“We’ve yet to barely see a drop of rain in November,” he said. “As a result, all of the underbrush, all of the debris falling, leaves falling off, trees are just absolutely bone dry, and it doesn’t take much for a spark to get a fire going.”

The region has faced an extremely dry period since September, and October was the driest month on record for much of the area.

Philadelphia alone has gone 40 days without rain, breaking the 29-day record set in 1874 for the most consecutive days without rain, according to the National Weather Service. The last time the region faced such severe drought was in 2002.

New Jersey, Delaware and much of Pennsylvania are under burn bans, and residents are asked not to build bonfires, set off fireworks or drop their cigarettes on the ground.

Rainfall is forecast for Sunday, but the precipitation will not be enough to make up the deficit, experts say.

“Even in a drought, you can get an inch, occasionally two inches of rain in a month. We’ve had no rain, and mind you, the average for a month is about 4 inches of rain,” Robinson said. “It’s not the length of the drought, it’s the depth of the drought, the extreme nature of the drought, in terms of the lack of precipitation.”

So far this year, the Forest Fire Service has responded to 1,202 wildfires, which have burned more than 8,000 acres.