The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for nearly all of Minnesota and Iowa on Thursday, saying fires could spread quickly amid gusty winds and extremely dry air.
In balmy and bone-dry autumn, red flag warning issued for nearly all of Minnesota
A third of the state has fallen back into severe drought as dry spell deepened. Burning brush piles or yard waste is prohibited during the warning period.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
October 17, 2024 at 5:52PM
Burning brush piles or yard waste is banned while the warning is in place. It is expected to end at 7 p.m. and covers every part of Minnesota, except Lake and Cook counties along the North Shore.
It’s one of the more widespread fire warnings the weather service has issued in the Upper Midwest since it started giving red flag warnings more than a decade ago. That’s a testament to not only how unusually dry the current air mass is hovering over the state, but how arid the entire region has been for the last 45 days, said Kenneth Blumenfeld, the senior climatologist for the Minnesota Climatology Office.
There hasn’t been any measurable rainfall in the Twin Cities so far in October. And September was the driest ever recorded, with records going back to the late 1800s, Blumenfeld said.
“Then you add the immediate conditions of increasing temperatures decreasing the amount of moisture in the air and really gusty winds, all of those things are good at promoting the spread of fire if it starts,” he said.
Forecasts show temperatures in parts of the state climbing in the low 80s this weekend, with no signs of rain in the foreseeable future.
The dry spell has dragged most of the state back into drought for the first time in months, with nearly a third of Minnesota in severe drought, according to a Thursday update from the U.S. Drought Monitor.
It was only a short while ago that heavy spring rains caused damaging floods that threatened dams, overfilled manure lagoons and swamped sewage treatment systems throughout southern Minnesota.
“It feels unlucky, like whiplash, to go from one hydro-climatic extreme to another,” Blumenfeld said. “But, in this case, we’ve actually been a little lucky.”
The drought and wildfire “could have been and would have been much worse,” starting earlier and affecting more places had it not been for the exceptionally wet spring, he said.
A third of the state has fallen back into severe drought as dry spell deepened. Burning brush piles or yard waste is prohibited during the warning period.
