DES MOINES – The National Weather Service in Des Moines continues to issue a red flag warning for most of the North Iowa area and all of western Iowa.
“The combination of low relative humidity, abnormally dry conditions and strong southwest winds will result in extreme fire weather conditions” through Tuesday evening.
More from the weather service:
A RED FLAG WARNING MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EITHER OCCURRING NOW…OR WILL SHORTLY. A COMBINATION OF STRONG WINDS…LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY…AND WARM TEMPERATURES WILL CREATE EXPLOSIVE FIRE GROWTH POTENTIAL.
* TIMING…UNTIL 900 PM THIS EVENING.
* WIND…SOUTHWEST WIND OF 15 TO 25 MPH…WITH GUSTS TO 35 MPH.
* RELATIVE HUMIDITY…AS LOW AS 15 PERCENT.
* FUEL…FIELD CROPS ARE NEARLY CURED AND HAVE BECOME HIGHLY COMBUSTIBLE AND IN COMBINATION WITH THE FORECAST CONDITIONS LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING…WOULD LEAD TO RAPID FIRE GROWTH. IN ADDITION…THE DRYING OF GRASSES IS WELL AHEAD OF SCHEDULE DUE TO THE HOT AND DRY CONDITIONS THIS SUMMER.
* IMPACTS…IF A FIRE STARTS THIS AFTERNOON…RAPID FIRE GROWTH WOULD BE POSSIBLE AND IT WOULD BE VERY DIFFICULT TO CONTAIN.
