The weather this weekend is going to be a serious challenge for firefighters. Beginning today, Friday, the Red Flags are flying.
As you can see in the map above most of the southwest today is under a Red Flag warning or Fire Weather Watch, and Saturday will be about the same.
The table below summarizes the weather forcast for Luna, New Mexico, which is just east of the Wallow fire. Winds gusting near 40 mph each day with single-digit relative humidity is not what the wildfire managers would like.
| Wind | Gusts | RH | Temp | |
| Fri | 26 | 37 | 7 | 82 |
| Sat | 28 | 39 | 9 | 82 |
| Sun | 29 | 40 | 8 | 81 |
| Mon | 14 | — | 10 | 79 |
Below is the weather recorded at the Luna, NM RAWS station Friday:
The wind will be from the west or southwest, which will be blowing roughly up and aligned with the Blue River drainage on the Wallow fire where most of the remaining open fireline remains on that fire. Very little of the drainage will be sheltered from the wind. If the fire crosses, fighting it on the east side in remote, rough terrain is not going to be easy.
The map below shows the southeast side of the Wallow fire. We’re looking up the Blue River drainage toward the northeast. The fire is outlined in red. Click to enlarge the image.
