Wildfires Burn As Fire Risk Lingers in the Southwest

10 Jun 2021, 4:30 am

While areas in the central part of the Nation are getting torrential rainfall, the Southwestern U.S. is currently under a dome of dry and hot conditions. Fires have been ongoing for many spots in the Southwest and there could be a risk for additional new fires in the coming days. Here is the latest fire weather forecast.

Current Active Fires

Fire Weather Alerts

Red flag warnings are in effect for a large portion of the Southwest. A red flag warning means high fire danger and rapid spreading in the next 24 hours. The fires can spread very easily if the winds are strong. Well, the winds will be strong in these areas too.

Wind alerts are in place for many of the areas under a fire risk. Wind gusts could be stronger than 60 mph at times.

Fire and Smoke Forecast

Check out the smoke dominating the forecast for areas of Arizona and New Mexico. This will lead to poor air quality for the Land of Enchantment where air quality alerts have been issued.

Fire Weather Outlook

The fire outlook shows elevated to extreme fire conditions ono Thursday. AN extreme risk is the highest level of fire danger and has not occurred in this region since 2006, according to the SPC.

Additional historical context courtesy of SPC WCM Matt Elliot. This is the first Extremely Critical designation across northeast Utah and northwest Colorado since 2006. Extremely critical areas are used to highlight rare parameter space conducive to significant fire weather. https://t.co/oLjdBgUkPj

— NWS Storm Prediction Center (@NWSSPC) June 9, 2021

Fire Prevention Tips

More updates are on the way on WeatherNation!

About the author

Devon Lucie

Devon is a native of Macomb in Western, Illinois but has made his travels across the country from Las Vegas to Washington, D.C. with stops in Tulsa, Little Rock, Kansas City, and Salt Lake City. His passion for weather developed at an early age and can be traced back to when he was 5 years old and dressed up as a walking tornado for Halloween. His college education came through the Universit... Load Morey of Oklahoma where he completed his B.S. in meteorology with a minor in math. Devon has been through weather extremes from 110°+ heat in Las Vegas, to 3 feet of snow in Washington, D.C. where in his first winter experienced the all-time record snowfall for the season (winter of 2009/2010)! He’s also chased tornadoes in Oklahoma and saw his very first off of I-70 on the front range of Colorado.