Wildfire — Rutherford Mountains, North Carolina

2016-11-05 to 2016-11-30 · Rutherford Mountains, North Carolina

Event narrative

The Party Rock fire burned more than 7,000 acres in the Lake Lure/Chimney Rock/Bat Cave area. Chimney Rock State Park was closed throughout much of the month, while Chimney Rock village was evacuated multiple times during adverse fire weather conditions.

Wider weather episode

An extended period of abnormally dry weather and drought conditions that began in late winter of 2016, and continued through the year resulted in very dry vegetation across western North Carolina by mid-autumn. This was exacerbated by an unusually warm late summer and fall, when temperatures averaged as much as 5 degrees above normal. In these conditions, multiple wildfires ignited and spread during the first week of November, culminating in one of the worst wildfire episodes in recent western North Carolina history. Multiple large fires burned, mainly across the southern mountains, and most of these fires were not completely contained until a cold front brought much-needed rain to the area at the end of the month.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 667192. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.