© 2024 KUNR
Illustration of rolling hills with occasional trees and a radio tower.
Serving Northern Nevada and the Eastern Sierra
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KUNR’s spring fund drive is happening now, and your gift to the station will go twice as far with a matching pledge from the KUNR Advisory Board!

Now is the time to act –
click here to make a gift to KUNR today or increase your sustaining membership and have it matched.
KUNR Public Radio is a proud partner in the Mountain West News Bureau, a partnership of public media stations that serve Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming. The mission is to tell stories about the people, places and issues of the Mountain West.

Nighttime's not quieting wildfires like it used to, study shows

A blazing fire along a mountain range at night.
Kyle Miller
/
InciWeb
The Pedro Mountain Fire

News brief

Wildfire activity generally slows at night as winds die down, temperatures drop and humidity rises. But a new study suggests that's changing.

U.S. Forest Service researchers examined data from heat-sensing satellites dating back to 2003, and found that increases in nighttime fire activity outpaced daytime increases.

The study's lead author, Patrick Freeborn, based at the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula, Mont., says his team's findings raise safety concerns for firefighters.

"Nighttime fire activity limits the opportunities for firefighters to rest and recover," Freeborn said. "And then if and when they are conducting nighttime operations, they're exposed to the additional risk of working in the dark."

That additional risk was made plain last month when a rare nighttime firefighting mission near Estes Park, Colo., resulted in the death of an air tanker pilot.

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Copyright 2021 Wyoming Public Radio. To see more, visit Wyoming Public Radio.

Maggie Mullen is a fifth generation Wyomingite, born and raised in Casper. She is currently a Masters candidate in American Studies and will defend her thesis on female body hair in contemporary American culture this May. Before graduate school, she earned her BA in English and French from the University of Wyoming. Maggie enjoys writing, cooking, her bicycle, swimming in rivers and lakes, and most any dog.
Related Content