Nearly an acre was damaged before the flames subsided, though the older trees remained unscathed. The Everett fire was one of the first, but not the last fire of the dry spell. Approximately 2,000 strikes occurred in Minnesota from the Sunday, August 3 storm. Recent technology assists fire prevention enormously. Each lightning bolt gives off electromagnetic waves which are detected and mapped out with specific coordinates.
Some lightning bolts are more apt to start fires than others.
Lightning strikes vary in temperature from 15,000 to 46,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than the sun's surface. The lightning technology the USFS uses is able to pinpoint where each lightning bolt struck, and then direct observation flights to that area in search of smoke. This last week's fires attest to that fact. Fires were springing up four days after the thunderstorm went through. Since the human-caused fire Saturday on Everett Lake, there were two lightning fires on Sunday, two sparked up on Monday, another two on Tuesday, and four more on Wednesday, four on Thursday, and none as of 1 p.m. Friday.