The Great Basin Coordination Center has issued a Fuels and Fire Behavior Advisory for October 9-23 for the entire Great Basin. Above normal heat and dryness from mid-September onwards have rapidly dried out both live and dead fuels across the entire region. Western Wyoming specifically is in severe drought and is in Very High fire danger.
Wildland fuels which were already at critical levels for most of the summer received only a few days of moistening rainfall before this current three-week drying trend pushed fuels in most areas back to critical levels, and in many cases to record levels. Extreme fire behavior is now being observed on existing fires as well as new and emerging fires across much of the Great Basin. The short-term dryness of the past few weeks has pushed the “Flash Drought” indices towards their highest levels across Wyoming and large areas of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and the Arizona Strip.
The advisory shares a range of concerns for firefighters and the public, including:
- Expect regular weekly episodes of strong/dry and large-scale wind events.
- Anticipate flashy fine fuels (grasses), sagebrush and mixed conifer to ignite easily with rapid and potentially extreme fire spread. Long-range spotting and large flaming fronts may occur. You can't outrun it.
- Expect more active burner longer through the day, and a higher risk for campfires to spread into adjacent fuels.