Wildfire — Page, Virginia

2024-03-20 to 2024-03-21 · Page, Virginia

Event narrative

Several fires were sparked by very strong westerly winds in excess of 50 mph and extremely low relative humidity values on the afternoon of March 20th. There were two large fires that straddled the Shenandoah/Page county line in the George Washington National Forest. The first of which was called the Waterfall Mountain/Shenandoah Forest/211 West Fire, which burned 6,399 acres between Shenandoah and Page counties. The other fire was named the Edith Gap/Serenity Ridge Fire, which burned 832 acres. These were both combined to be a part of a greater complex of fires, named the North Zone Complex. In addition to these fires, there was another fire that was managed by another federal team on the Page/Rappahannock County line in Shenandoah National Park named the Rocky Mount Fire, which burned a total of 1031 acres. Throughout the county, a total of 11 structures were either damaged or destroyed, including 9 homes.

Wider weather episode

The combination of an anomalously strong westerly wind event and extremely low relative humidity across the region sparked numerous wildfires across the entire region. Especially hard hit were communities across eastern West Virginia into the Shenandoah Valley of northwestern Virginia. Several large fires burned a total of 17,008 acres in these areas. Several other smaller fires were noted, but were able to be contained quick enough to cover relatively small areas.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1166146. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.