Warmest-on-record September ends with more heat and red flag warnings

The driest and warmest September on record drew to a close Monday with highs in the 80s and fire danger running high across much of Minnesota.

A brief cool-down on Tuesday will see temperatures sink into the more-normal 60s for a day before Wednesday takes another run for 80.

No rain is in sight.

Red flag warnings for extreme fire danger were in place across 39 counties in central, northeast, northwest and southwest Minnesota, where the combination of unseasonable warmth, low humidity, high winds and dry vegetation created “critical” conditions for wildfires, the National Weather Service said.

“Today is not the day to be doing any kind of burning,” the Weather Service said.

The northern portion of Lake and St. Louis counties in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Wilderness (BWCAW) and a handful of counties in northwestern Minnesota are under “extreme” fire danger with a “very high” danger across most of the state, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said.

The intense conditions prompted Superior National Forest managers on Monday afternoon to ban campfires in the million-acre BWCAW. The emergency order begins Tuesday morning and is indefinite.

The Forest Service said visitors still can use gas and propane cook stoves in the BWCAW and throughout the national forest.

The dry, warm and windy conditions up north worsened the BWCAW’s Wood Lake fire on Sunday, increasing it by 5 acres. Air and ground crews are fighting the blaze, according to the agency, which closed some areas that it had reopened Saturday. Wood, Good, Hula and Indiana lakes and connecting portages now are shut down.

The Wood Lake fire, discovered on Sept. 10, was reported 50% contained Friday.

“We have seen warmer and drier conditions across much of the Superior National Forest, especially within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness,” forest supervisor Tom Hall said in Monday’s news release.

A red flag warning means fires can spread quickly and easily get out of control, the DNR said. The DNR will not issue or activate open burning permits for large vegetative debris burning during a red flag warning.

“When fire risk is this high, it’s important to be careful with anything that could spark a wildfire,” said Karen Harrison, a DNR wildfire prevention specialist.

Temperatures reached into the 80s for a sixth straight day Monday before a cool front was forecast to push across the state from the northwest on Tuesday, the Weather Service said. The forecast calls for highs in the upper 60s and low 70s Thursday through Sunday with sunny skies, the National Weather Service said.

The front promised gusty winds and a drop in humidity levels, creating elevated fire potential until evening in places such as Marshall, Morris, St. Cloud, Fergus Falls, Detroit Lakes, Brainerd and Bemidji, setting the stage for fires.

Tyler Teal took advantage of warm weather Monday to walk his dog, Woody, a 2½-year-old schnauzer, around Bde Maka Ska in south Minneapolis.

“Beautiful,” Teal said of the weather, though he said that Woody is not a fan of 85-degree temperatures. “It makes up for June,” when an abundance of rainy days kept temperatures below average.

Tyler stopped to allow Woody to “meet” Susan Gecas’ dog, Reuben, in the shade on the northwest side of the lake.

“It was too hot for him on the blacktop,” she said, referring to Reuben.

Kristin Witte of Chanhassen found that warm weather and sun-drenched skies made Monday a good day to play hooky from work and play a round of golf at Theodore Wirth Golf Club in Golden Valley.

“Can’t beat the weather,” she said before teeing off with her friend Marny Benjamin of St. Louis Park. “Winter is ahead.”

Monday was the 19th day in September the mercury hit or surpassed the 80-degree mark. With an average daily temperature of 70.3 degrees, this September is now the warmest recorded since weather records began in 1873, the Minnesota Climatology Office said.

That eclipses the previous mark of 69.1 degrees set just last year, the climatology office said.

Though rain fell on three separate days in September, it barely wetted the ground. Just 0.06 inches fell in the Twin Cities, making it the driest September in recorded history. The last time it was this dry in September was when 0.24 inches of precipitation fell in 2022.

The lack of rain has left much of Minnesota in the abnormally dry category, according to the latest edition of the U.S. Drought Monitor. And that comes on the heels of one of the soggiest springs on record. The 7.27 inches of rain recorded in the Twin Cities made it the 14th wettest June on record. Cities such as Windom, Wells, Owatonna and Faribault set records and experienced flooding.

Just a few months later, it’s getting bone dry again.

“We just don’t have that middle [ground] anymore,” said John Jacobson, an owner of Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake, during a visit by Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan last Thursday. “We had this very, very wet spring, and now we’re … what? The driest September in recorded history.”

Bob Timmons contributed to this story.