The National Weather Service has 68 active Red Flag Warnings and fire weather alerts spanning 14 states, a sharp jump from 45 alerts across 10 states a day earlier, as critical fire weather conditions widen their reach across the country heading into the weekend.
The growth is both in volume and geography. Alerts now stretch from the Pacific Northwest and Southwest through Colorado, the Northeast corridor and into the mid-Atlantic and Southeast, covering Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Maine, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Washington.
In Washington state, the National Weather Service in Spokane has flagged the Okanogan Valley, the Colville Reservation, the foothills of the central Cascades and the Waterville Plateau, where southwest winds of 10 to 20 mph are expected to gust as high as 35 mph alongside relative humidity as low as 12 to 20 percent. Forecasters there warn winds will shift from south-southwest to west through Saturday evening, a pattern officials say makes rapid spread likely with any new or existing fire. A Fire Weather Watch also covers the Western Columbia Basin from Saturday afternoon through Saturday evening, with west winds of 10 to 20 mph gusting to 30 mph under the same low-humidity conditions.
Colorado’s high country is under similar strain, with warnings covering the Paradox Valley, Northern San Juan, North Fork and Gunnison Basin in the southwestern part of the state, where dry, windy weather is again the driver.
The East Coast footprint has also thickened. Alerts now cover the New York City boroughs — Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and Brooklyn — along with Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties, and New Jersey’s Passaic, Bergen, Essex and Union counties, reflecting how far the dry pattern first seen in the Southwest and Northeast has now pushed into the densely populated mid-Atlantic corridor.
The National Weather Service says a Fire Weather Watch means critical fire conditions are forecast to develop, and residents should listen for updated forecasts and the possibility the watch is upgraded to a Red Flag Warning. With humidity readings as low as 12 percent and gusts topping 30 mph in multiple regions, officials are emphasizing that any spark — from equipment, debris burning or downed lines — could spread quickly under these conditions.
Forecasters have not signaled relief; with 14 states now under some form of fire weather alert compared with 10 a day earlier, the coverage area appears to still be expanding rather than contracting heading into the weekend.