The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871

[Ptarmigan]

On October 8, 1871, as Chicago was burning in the Great Chicago Fire. Another even more devastating fire ravaged northeastern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. Peshtigo was center of the timber industry. Fires were set for clearing in the forest. However things go bad. The fires started to grow uncontrollable. Then a cold front comes by on October 8th and brings strong winds. These winds fan the flames even further. These small flames exploded in massive wildfires. These strong winds also help fan the flames in Chicago. The fire managed to spread by jumping into Michigan. The fire burned down Holland, Michigan and Manistee, Michigan. By the time the firestorm ended, 1,875 square miles, which is the size of two Rhode Islands was burned. The death toll is in the neighbor of 1,200 to 2,500, which makes it the worst fire in American history. The World Trade Center attack claimed 2,749 lives, however that was mostly from the collapse. Since the fire happened, some believe it was caused by fragments of Comet Biela impact, since the Great Chicago Fire and Great Peshtigo Fire happened on the same day. Sadly, this inferno is largely forgotten due to the Great Chicago Fire.

The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871
Wikipedia-The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871

[Aslkahuna]

Comet Biela's orbit is such that the nodal crossing of Earth's orbit takes place in November and not October thus no impact was possible in October. Also, there was a Drought ongoing in the Midwest in 1871 thus things were very dry. Some years ago Weatherwise had an article about the fires which indicated that the winds driving the flames were a result of the heat from the fires mixing the winds from a LLJ down to the surface. The slash fires from the timber cutting had smoldered form many weeks before exploding into a firestorm in October.

Steve

[Ptarmigan]

Comet Biela's orbit is such that the nodal crossing of Earth's orbit takes place in November and not October thus no impact was possible in October. Also, there was a Drought ongoing in the Midwest in 1871 thus things were very dry. Some years ago Weatherwise had an article about the fires which indicated that the winds driving the flames were a result of the heat from the fires mixing the winds from a LLJ down to the surface. The slash fires from the timber cutting had smoldered form many weeks before exploding into a firestorm in October.

Steve

Too many slash fires became massive wildfires. A comet impact would not do that.

[Aslkahuna]

A large enough cometary impact could indeed generate enough heat to trigger massive fires but one that large would have certainly been very noticeable and no such event was observed in 1871.

Steve

[pojo]

Peshtigo Fire is the forgotten fire... but NOT out of the minds of the people in Wi/Mi.... The Peshtigo story will always be told through the generations.

[Ptarmigan]

Peshtigo Fire is the forgotten fire... but NOT out of the minds of the people in Wi/Mi.... The Peshtigo story will always be told through the generations.

I've been told by a lot of people from that region that they learn it in history class in school.

[pojo]

Yes we do.