Twice last week, smoke from prescribed burns in the Oakmulgee Division of the Talladega National Forest blew from central Alabama into Tuscaloosa as unexpected wind shifts and a high‑pressure system trapped haze over campus during the height of burn season.
It is common from mid-January through April to see haze because every day federal, state and private agencies can burn. Hazes can normally last anywhere from several hours to four days; however, it is unusual that there have been two days and consecutive weeks that have been so smoky.
“I noticed the haze when I got off work around three on Wednesday,” said Karen Garst, a junior majoring in chemical engineering. “It was pretty bad around campus. I could see and smell it, and I thought there was a fire, but I didn’t hear any fire alarms or anything.”
Garst said she chose to be outside despite low air quality.
“With the good weather, I’m out here, no matter what,” Garst said. “I did see that the air quality was 171, which seemed pretty bad, but it’s too sunny to worry too much.”
While the average air quality index on Wednesday, March 4 was 102, the value has dropped to an average of 57.
While some students were surprised by the conditions, Tyler McWilliams, a junior majoring in geology, said he was used to it.
“I’m from Birmingham, so we have a lot of similar smoke conditions from the National Forest at least once or twice a year,” McWilliams said. “I noticed it in Tuscaloosa about two to three weeks ago, when it first covered campus, but knowing the background and forestry, I understand why they’re doing it.”
Prescribed fires used to reduce forest density, increase biodiversity, and lessen the severity of wildfires. Though avoided in the past, it is now seen as a beneficial tool in improving forest resilience.
Justin Hart, director of the Environmental Science Program at the University, said the fires are often well over 1,000 acres when they burn.
“If you think about all of the fuels that they’re combusting over large acreages like that, that’s an enormous amount of smoke that’s being generated,” he said.
However, this week’s weather changes caused the smoke conditions to be worse than expected over the Tuscaloosa area, which Hart said could be because of high pressure due to the position of cyclones or anticyclones.
“In high pressure, air descends, so the smoke couldn’t lift and move out of here and stayed near the surface,” Hart said. “Those fires were ignited early in the morning, and during the day, some changes in the weather pushed the smoke in a place they weren’t anticipating.”
An additional concern with high levels of smoke is the PM2.5 levels, a term that references particles that are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. Hart said that this is one of the more common issues with burning in Alabama and can affect more sensitive groups, such as people in retirement homes or hospitalized for respiratory or heart diseases.
Though the smoke can be a downfall, ultimately, prescribed burns are important to sustain the ecosystems.
“We use prescribed fire a lot in the southeast. It’s one of the positive things where the South is actually a national leader ecologically,” Hart said. “We have a bunch of species that are dependent on fire here, like longleaf pines, our state tree. Fire is a critical component to those ecosystems, so these fires are being used all in the name of ecological restoration.”
Hart said that people should learn to live with smoky conditions during the burn season because it is a natural part of living in the South in the spring.
“Especially in the western U.S., hopefully more and more people will learn to tolerate or live with that smoke because those prescribed fires, not so much in the southeast, but in the western US, prevent catastrophic wildfires,” Hart said. “So a little smoke in the spring is better than the loss of life and homes in the fall.”
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