A Red Flag Warning always indicates that firefighters could be presented with challenges when trying to control a wildfire under the predicted extreme weather conditions. Today a Red Flag Warning is in effect for most of the state of Arizona including the areas in which several large fires are burning — the Gladiator, Bull Flat, and Sunflower fires. The Warning is in effect in the central Arizona area until 8 p.m. MST Friday evening for strong winds and low relative humidity. The forecast is for southwest winds at 15 to 30 mph with gusts of 35 to 50 mph, and a minimum relative humidity as low as 8 percent.
This could cause the Gladiator fire, which has now burned 9,900 acres, to grow on the north side again on Friday and move closer to the community of Mayer. At 2 a.m. Friday morning MST the Gladiator fire was about 7 miles from Mayer.
As we noted on Thursday, again the entire state of Utah miraculously avoided a Red Flag Warning. Maybe all of their fire weather forecasters are on their days off. Or, the map was created by the staff of the Onion, who previously discovered a wildfire that “raged back into control”.
The weather at 11:53 a.m. MST at the Sunset Point weather station about 7 miles southeast of the Gladiator fire was: 82 degrees, 11 percent RH, winds 14 mph out of the SSW with gusts of 24 mph.
The map below shows the Gladiator fire’s perimeter as of 2 p.m. MST May 17, 2012. The entire map can be seen HERE.
The fire has knocked a Prescott television station off the air. The transmitter site for KAZT-TV has not been burned by the fire but the electrical power leading to the site has been interrupted. A backup power generator supplied electrical power to the transmitters for a while, but then it failed. Technicians cannot access the transmission site due to road closures.
according to other sources utah is under a red flag warning
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54149309-78/temperatures-utah-weather-areas.html.csp
and
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/view/validProds.php?prod=RFW&node=KSLC
the southern third if the state has been for a while.
not sure why some sources show nothing others get it right.
Richr: of course the article above refers to May 18, but you’re right about today, May 21. One National Weather Service site says there is a Red Flag warning for parts of Utah today, but another NWS site does not. The NWS needs to fix this.