2023 New Jersey Wildfire Season (March20th update)

Yesterday, March 19th, there was a red flag warning covering all of New Jersey for high fire danger. I spent a little time just now first checking various news media around the area as well as NJFFS social media accounts to see what wildfire activity there was yesterday. Keep in mind, that I am likely unaware of all the smaller wildfires that may have occurred, especially those covering only a few acres. I did see a Facebook post from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service about a 30 acre wildfire in Westhampton in Burlington County.

Thanks to the NJ Forest Fire Service Section B10 for letting me know about a nice report from CBS Philadelphia about yesterday's red flag warning. In this report, Greg McLaughlin from the NJ Forest Fire Service provided some information about this years 2023 wildfire season (January and February) versus the same period in 2022. Specifically, he said that through the end of February there were 119 wildfires versus 71 during the same period last year. He spoke of the significance of a warmer winter with little snow fall. Finally he talked about what homeowners can do to prevent wildfires such as not dumping grill or fireplace ashes outside. Please take a couple of minutes to watch this report.

Direct link to video on from CBS Philadelphia on YouTube