How lightning triggers wildfires

AccuWeather's Anna Azallion breaks down lightning's role in wildfires.

Transcript

00:00you're looking at smoke from the dragon bravo fire in northern arizona right around the northern

00:09rim of the grand canyon this has been burning for more than a month now reaching more than a hundred

00:15thousand acres now containment has jumped up recently which is good news but still have a long

00:21way to go to get this fire completely under control and i want to talk about what started

00:25this fire and actually what starts most fires in the u.s well most fires are human caused whether

00:31that's accidental or arson but this fire was started by lightning which is a big contributor

00:37when we take a look at fires across the southwest i mean there's plenty of them but this i believe

00:43is the only major fire at this point that has been started by lightning so let's talk about how this

00:48happens because i know you might be a little confused because lightning comes with a thunderstorm

00:52right which usually comes with rain well in the west there's a couple different factors we have

00:57to think about first i want to talk about the dryness dry vegetation is perfect fuel for a wildfire

01:03and that's why we're looking at the drought monitor because this gives you an indication of how dry it

01:07is in the southwest specifically in northern arizona while it ranges from moderate to even extreme drought

01:14levels so bottom line perfect conditions for a wildfire to spark and to spread now let's talk about

01:22the thunderstorms themselves now it's a phenomenon called dry lightning now there's two ways that

01:28this kind of happens as far as lightning being able to start a wildfire now you either have the rain

01:33evaporating before it hits the ground so dry lightning it's just the lightning you're not getting any

01:39rainfall with it or there's some rain but not enough to counteract the effects of that very hot lightning

01:45striking the dry vegetation and causing a fire so just remember this is not the majority of fires

01:52not the way majority of fires are started so you still need to take precautions

01:55you