What happened to our fall burn weather?

At Pleasant Valley Conservancy we have been doing major burns in both the spring and the fall since 1999. Here is a link to the complete burn record.

I just went through the history and found that we have burned in the fall 16 years, every year since 1999 except 2009, 2013, and 2015. Most of our fall burns have been North Woods burns, but for various reasons we have occasionally done some prairie burns.

We were all set to do another North Woods burn this fall, but the weather has not cooperated. I haven't looked at the weather  bureau  data, but I am certain that this has been the coldest October and November since we have started  doing restoration work.

Although the fall burn season is always shorter than the spring, we have always had at least a few days of favorable burn weather. October 1999 was the warmest and driest on record, and we had a fantastic North Woods burn on Hallowe'en when the temperature was in the low 70s and the R.H. % was in the upper 20s.

Recently, 2014 and 2016 were great years for fall burns.

Nov 5, 2014 Vahldieck photo

Note how well the oak leaves are burning! Vahldieck photo

Hopefully, we will be able to get our planned North Woods burn done this next spring. We'll see!