Weather Helped Reduce Michigan Wildfires in 2014

Officials say weather conditions including a long winter and a wet spring and summer combined to put a damper on wildfires across Michigan in 2014.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials say that 167 wildfires statewide blackened a total of 550 acres. In the Upper Peninsula, The Mining Journal of Marquette reports there were 31 fires that charred 58 acres.

In the Upper Peninsula, last year’s total was 22 fewer than in 2013.

The DNR numbers don’t include small fires that volunteer fire departments responded to without the DNR’s assistance or fires on certain federal lands.

DNR fire specialist Bryce Avery says the Upper Peninsula had above-average snowfall and, in the spring, snow stayed on the ground longer than usual as temperatures were below average.