Critically dry weather conditions continue to fuel fires across the Southwest, bringing yet another week of fire danger.
It has been an extraordinarily busy start to the fire year in the South and Southwest, with more than 19,000 wildfires reported through Tuesday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.This is the highest number of fires at this time of the year in any year in the past decade, burning a total of 827,000 acres, more than 30% above average.
"While critically dry and windy conditions are expected to be widespread Thursday-Saturday, Friday appears to be particularly volatile," the Storm Prediction Center warns. As a low-pressure system moves out of the area later this week, wind gusts will peak Friday at 50-70 miles per hour. These extremely strong winds are"expected to support Extremely Critical conditions across central and eastern New Mexico into eastern Colorado Friday afternoon," according to the SPC.
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