The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado for strong winds and low humidity.
The warnings issued are for many different fire weather areas, the borders of which you can see on the map. Most of the warnings in northern California expire Saturday night, while the southern California areas generally expire at various times on Sunday. The Colorado warnings are valid until Saturday evening.
The map was current as of 9:30 a.m. MDT on Saturday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings in California and Colorado.
North of San Francisco enhanced fire weather conditions will return Friday night and Saturday with 20 to 30 mph northeast winds gusting at 40 to 50 mph. Isolated gusts up to 60 are possible on the highest ridges and peaks. The humidity will be in the teens during the day and between 25 and 35 percent at night.
The map was current as of 11 a.m. MDT on Friday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
Red Flag Warning (red) and Fire Weather Watch (yellow). October 6, 2017.
The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning in effect until 8 p.m. PDT Friday for gusty winds and low relative humidity for the Ventura, Los Angeles County, and Santa Monica Mountains. The wind will be northeast at 15 to 25 with gusts up to 40 mph. These conditions will moderate on Saturday, but will return on Sunday and Monday.
A Fire Weather Watch has been issued in much of northern California for similar conditions beginning Sunday morning through late Monday night. Forecasters expect 15 to 30 mph north to northeast winds gusting to 40 mph along with minimum humidity between 8 and 15 percent.
The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings in only one state today, Colorado.
The map was current as of 10:15 a.m. MDT on Friday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings or Fire Weather Watches in a rather unusual pattern for areas in Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas.
The maps were current as of 10:30 a.m. MDT on Thursday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
Estimated precipitation during the 48-hour period ending at 10:30 a.m. MDT September 21, 2017.
Wildfires are still active in California, Oregon, Washington, and northwest Montana. Red Flag Warning for northern Nevada.
Above: Indigo Fire in southwest Oregon, September 17, 2017. It is being managed by the East Zone of the Chetco Bar Fire. Inciweb.
(Originally published at 1 a.m. MDT September 18, 2017)
The precipitation that hit areas in the northern Rockies last week has slowed or in some cases temporarily halted, perhaps, the spread of some of the wildfires, many of which had been burning for more than a month. Higher elevations in portions of western Montana received snow, a significant amount in a few areas.
Most of Montana and eastern Idaho had over half an inch of precipitation, but extreme northwest Montana, northwest California, northern Idaho, and most of Oregon and Washington received very little.
Estimated precipitation received for the 7-day period ending Sunday Evening, September 17, 2017.
For example, some evacuations are still in effect for the West Fork Fire in northwest Montana north of Libby. But in the photo below firefighters on the Blacktail Fire northeast of Bozeman look like they are on a winter snow adventure.
Firefighters on the Blacktail Fire, 48 miles northeast of Bozeman. Photo by Jade Martin.
Many of the wildfires in extreme northwest California and the Cascades of Oregon and Washington are still active. The satellite photo of that area is the most recent we could find that was at least partially free of clouds. On Friday smoke plumes were still very visible from hundreds of miles overhead.
Satellite photo of the northwest United States, September 15, 2017. The red dots represent heat that the satellite was able to detect where the clouds were not too thick. NASA.
