How are winds and low humidity linked to wildfires?

The fire threat is elevated across many areas as the winds increase and dry air settles in place. This mixture will elevate the risk of fires becoming uncontrollable.

There are 3 components that help fires propagate: drought or dry vegetation, low relative humidity, and winds. If there is ignition, such as a spark, the fire starts. The three weather ingredients often make the fire grow and become erratic.

Fire ignition can be caused by cigarette butts, a still burning match, smoldering, a small (controlled) fire pit, a hot tailpipe, or even lightning. Knowing the causes of ignitions can help us easily understand the fact that 9 out of 10 wildfires in the United States are caused by humans.

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The reasons for fires to spread are weather-related. Dry seasonal conditions can lead to drought, climate change is causing some areas, such as areas in California through the Four Corners region, to live in a perpetual drought.

During the fall, winter, and spring, the United States is dominated by fronts that can usher much drier air from higher latitudes, especially across the Central Plains and East. But for some places, the summers are also high fire risk months as warm temperatures also help fires grow and it is usually toward the end of the dry season, which is when a drought could be at it is worse level.

The wind, well… that’s oxygen. The higher the wind, the more oxygen available to help spread the fire and allow it to grow. This is what makes a fire behave erratically and brings major problems to firefighters trying to put out fires.

Now that you know how the recipe works, make sure to check the weather conditions where you live. If the air is dry, winds are strong and vegetation is dry, there will likely be a red flag warning or high fire danger in place.

This is the time to avoid activities involving fires. Something as simple as throwing your still ignited cigarette out the car's window or leaving your car parked on dry vegetation could ignite a fire and can grow to leave millions of dollars in damage and deaths.