The National Weather Service had 79 active Red Flag Warnings posted Wednesday across 16 states, more than double the 36 warnings in place a day earlier, as fire weather risk widened its reach from the Great Lakes region to the Cascades of Washington state.
Wednesday’s alerts cover California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. That is five more states than Tuesday’s roster, with Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington, Indiana, North Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia newly added, while Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and South Dakota dropped off the list.
The expansion is most pronounced in the Upper Midwest, where the fire danger has taken on a maritime dimension. The National Weather Service has posted dense smoke advisories across the length of Lake Superior — from Duluth, Minnesota, to Whitefish Point, Michigan — warning that smoke will cut visibility to less than one nautical mile for vessels on the water. Those advisories run until 8 a.m. EDT Thursday for the eastern lake and until 4 p.m. CDT Thursday for the western stretch near Grand Portage and Silver Bay Harbor, Minnesota. The agency is telling mariners who must get underway to use fog signals, keep running lights on and rely on radar and compass rather than visual navigation.
Onshore, more than 20 Wisconsin counties are under warnings, stretching from Vilas, Oneida and Forest counties in the north down through Marathon, Portage, Outagamie and Brown counties in the central and eastern part of the state.
In the West, the fire weather threat has shifted into Washington’s mountain terrain. Red Flag Warnings now cover the Olympic Mountains, the North and Central Cascades above 1,500 feet, the Waterville Plateau, the Okanogan Highlands and Kettle Mountains, and the Methow and Okanogan valleys — terrain that had been largely clear of warnings a day earlier.
The pattern points to a fire weather season broadening on two fronts at once: smoke and low-visibility hazards settling over the Great Lakes shipping lanes, and dry, elevated terrain in the Pacific Northwest coming under its own warnings for the first time this week. States that appeared on Tuesday’s list — California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Wyoming — remain under warnings Wednesday, meaning none of the original fire weather footprint has eased even as new regions join it.
The National Weather Service said additional Red Flag Warnings could be issued as conditions evolve through the week; residents in affected areas should avoid outdoor burning and use caution with any activity that could spark a fire.