How A Hurricane Fueled Wildfires In The Florida Panhandle

By David Goodwin, University of Florida
Mar 11, 2022 2:00 PMMar 11, 2022 2:01 PM
Florida Fires
(Credit: Forwarn/USDA Forest Service) Satellites captured the tree loss from Hurricane Michael in 2018. This is where fires were burning in 2022.

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The wildfires that broke out in the Florida Panhandle in early March 2022 were the nightmare fire managers had feared since the day Hurricane Michael flattened millions of trees there in 2018. It might sound odd – hurricanes helping to fuel wildfires. But Michael’s 160 mph winds left tangles of dead trees that were ready to burn.

We asked University of Florida fire ecologist David Godwin, who co-leads the Southern Fire Exchange, to explain the role the hurricane played in wildfires that forced over 1,000 people to evacuate their homes.

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