Fire
National Fire News
as of September 16 at 7:00 a.m. MDT (on a scale from 1 to 5)
Current hours for the National Fire Information Center are
(MST) 8:00 am – 4:30pm, Monday – Friday
208-387-5050
This report will be updated Monday through Friday.
Please check the IMSR for more information.
September 23, 2022
Six new large fires were reported yesterday, four in Idaho, and one in both Montana and South Dakota. Nationally, 96 large fires have burned 905,828 acres in several states. About 9,700 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to incidents.
Although several areas have seen a change in the weather that has decreased the potential for new large fires, incidents in the northern Cascade mountains may continue to burn actively. Visit the Predictive Services website for more information about current weather conditions and listen to the weekly fuels and fire danger podcast.
As we head into fall, people like to use dirt bikes, ATVs, and side-by-side vehicles to travel to hard-to-get places. If your plans for getting outside include some motorized adventure, please be cautious when driving or parking on dry grass or brush. Do your part to recreate responsibly and prevent wildfires.
Weather
A cold front will move through the southern Rockies, central Plains, and into the western Great Lakes. Scattered showers and thunderstorms are likely near and ahead of the front from the eastern Dakotas into the western Great Lakes then south into the Lower Missouri and Mid-Mississippi Valleys. Isolated to scattered mainly wet thunderstorms are expected across southeast Arizona, much of New Mexico, and the Texas Panhandle, while isolated thunderstorms are likely over the Florida Peninsula. A few showers will move into northwest Washington as well.
Westerly sustained winds of 20-35 mph with gusts of 40-60 mph are expected across portions of central and eastern Wyoming into western Nebraska and southwest South Dakota, but recent precipitation will likely mitigate significant fire potential. Dry and breezy conditions are expected across much of Texas and Oklahoma, and relative humidity will fall below 30% for much of the Southeast, with a few areas below 20%. Areas of breezy post-frontal north winds are possible as well from southeast Georgia into eastern Virginia likely creating locally elevated fire weather conditions.
