The National Weather Service has posted 19 Red Flag Warnings across eight states — Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota and Wyoming — as the footprint of fire weather danger contracts in some regions even as it expands into new ground.
The warning count is down from 22 alerts across ten states a day earlier, with Alaska, Arizona, California and Washington dropping off the list. But the danger zone has grown in another direction: warnings now extend into northeastern Minnesota, covering Koochiching, North St. Louis, Central St. Louis, Carlton/South St. Louis, North Itasca, South Itasca, North Cass and the Northern Cook/Northern Lake and Southern Cook/North Shore areas — a stretch of the state that wasn’t part of yesterday’s story.
The core threat remains the northern Rockies and Great Plains. In South Dakota, warnings run from 10 a.m. through 9 p.m. MDT across Fall River County, the Custer County Plains, Pine Ridge Area, Badlands Area, and the Northern and Southern Campbell zones, driven by gusty winds and relative humidity forecasters say will drop low enough to support rapid fire spread. The Storm Prediction Center’s fire weather partners describe the same setup pushing into Crook County Plains and Weston County Plains in Wyoming.
Wyoming carries some of the broadest coverage, with warnings spanning the North and South Bighorn Basin, Cody Foothills, Natrona County/Casper BLM, Johnson County, Sheridan County/Casper BLM and the Upper Wind River Basin. The National Weather Service says the combination of low humidity, high heat and strong, erratic gusts could produce unpredictable fire behavior for any new ignition.
Montana’s warned area covers Yellowstone, Stillwater, Golden Valley/Musselshell, Wheatland/Sweet Grass and Custer counties, along with the Crow Indian Reservation, the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation and national forest land in the Beartooth and Gallatin districts. In Idaho, a tighter window — 1 to 9 p.m. MDT — covers Fire Weather Zones 410, 411 and 476, including the Upper Snake River Valley near Idaho Falls and the Lemhi and Lost River Range near Challis, under southwest winds and falling humidity.
The National Weather Service says a Red Flag Warning means critical fire conditions are underway or imminent: relative humidity at or below 15 percent in some zones, combined with sustained winds capable of driving flames out of control. Outdoor burning, sparks from equipment and unattended campfires all carry elevated risk under these conditions. Forecasters will reassess the warnings as the day’s heat peaks and winds ease after sunset, but the eastward creep into Minnesota suggests the fire weather pattern is broadening rather than closing out.