The National Weather Service has 13 active Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches posted across five states — Colorado, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming — a sharp pullback from the 19 alerts covering eight states a day earlier, as Idaho, Montana and Oregon dropped off the map entirely.
The remaining threat is concentrating in two bands: the northern Plains and northern Minnesota. In South Dakota, a Red Flag Warning covers Fall River County, the Northern and Eastern Foot Hills, Custer County Plains, the Pine Ridge Area, Butte County, Perkins County, the West Central Plains, Ziebach County, Haakon County, the Badlands Area, and Corson and Dewey counties, in effect until 9 p.m. MDT Tuesday because of gusty winds and low relative humidity, the National Weather Service said.
Minnesota is where the danger zone is still growing rather than shrinking. A Fire Weather Watch now stretches across a wide swath of the state’s north, including Koochiching, North St. Louis, Northern Cook and Lake, North Itasca, Central St. Louis, Southern Lake and Cook, North Cass, South Itasca, Carlton, and — newly added since yesterday — Roseau, Lake of the Woods, East Marshall, North and South Beltrami, North and South Clearwater, and Hubbard counties. The watch runs Tuesday afternoon through Tuesday evening, with southwest winds of 10 to 15 mph and gusts up to 30 mph, and relative humidity dropping as low as 25 percent, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters warned that fires could spread rapidly given those conditions combined with dry fuels on the ground.
Further southwest, additional zones tied to Wyoming and Colorado forecast offices remain flagged, including the Laramie Range, Laramie Valley, Shirley Basin, Southwest Carbon County, the Snowy Range Foothills, and the Bordeaux, Chugwater and Wheatland areas, along with the Goshen area along the North Platte River Basin.
A Red Flag Warning means critical fire weather conditions are occurring or expected imminently, with strong winds, low humidity and warm temperatures combining to raise the risk that any spark could spread quickly, the National Weather Service said. A Fire Weather Watch signals those conditions are possible but not yet imminent.
With Idaho, Montana and Oregon now clear, the pattern suggests the West’s fire weather risk has eased for the moment while the northern Plains and Upper Midwest carry the burden into midweek. Forecasters will be watching whether the Minnesota watch upgrades to a warning as Tuesday’s afternoon winds arrive, and whether the South Dakota warning area expands again once the current alert expires Tuesday night.