Does rain help with stemming a wildfire?

Answers

oikoσ

A rainstorm can dump much more water on a fire than the fire-fighters can in an equal period of time.

Kano

Of course firefighters pray for rain.

Bubba Gubbins

Yes. It works even better than raking the forest.

ian

Of cause rain quenches awildfire

JOHN

Yes. If you visit the forests of Northern Europe, you'll quickly realize they are constantly drenched by rain. A forest fire is thus extremely rare and also very quickly under control by the fire fighters. Here in England our forests are wet - we get a lot of rain. California is bone dry most of the time. Thus forest firest are a constant event, every single year. This last an enormous out of control fire storm the biggest ever in living memory. Even though plants first emerged on Earth 400 million years ago, it was not until approximately 80 million years later that wildfires began ripping through forests and grasslands like they do today in California, a new study revealed. So, if there was plenty of foliage, what prevented raging wildfires during this time? Researchers from University of Royal Holloway London discovered that there simply was not enough oxygen in the atmosphere, according to a news release. It turns out that widespread forest fires were not present until around 360 million years ago, in the latest Devonian Period, when oxygen levels rose to above 17 percent. Today, the atmospheric oxygen is approximately 21 percent, the release noted.

jean

trees get very dehydrated when there is not much rain. thus they go u in flames easier

Linda

Of course.