A Windy, Sometimes Fiery Nation Today

All those red areas in today's National Weather Service map
are fire alert areas. The browns are high wind warnings or
advisories. Many of these areas are under both wind
and fire alerts. 

We here in Vermont got some more rain, as expected Wednesday, with some parts of eastern Vermont getting more than an inch. 

That's terrific, since the driest conditions around here have been in those parts of the Green Mountain State.  

It's also pretty calm out there today, which is an exception to what's going on in much of the nation. 

There's lots of wind today in the western two thirds of the United States, with vast areas under high wind warnings and wind advisories. 

Unfortunately, many of these areas are in drought. The combination of that dryness, the strong winds and low humidity is once again driving up the fire risk. 

The nation's fire season just doesn't seem to want to end. 

The areas most at risk for dangerous wildfire conditions today are northern California (again!), the northern Rockies and a vast area of the northern and central Plains. 

You wouldn't think there's much to burn in the Plains, but there's a lot of grassland and dried out crops that can easily catch fire.  These blazes can be dangerous. 

For instance, rangeland fires in Oklahoma back in 2018 killed at least two people and destroyed several dozen homes.  

The Plains will trend toward cooler and in some places somewhat wetter conditions over the next week, which should improve things, at least temporarily.

Out on the West Coast, it's still looking grim for awhile yet. Below normal rainfall is likely to continue out there for at least the next two weeks. No rain is forecast anywhere in California for the next two weeks. 

It doesn't usually rain in southern California this time of year anyway. Santa Ana winds expected near Los Angeles will raise the fire risk for much of the rest of this week. 

Northern California usually starts to see the start of the winter rainy season about now.  So far, no luck. 

Back here in the New England, recent rains haven't entire erased the drought, but at least the forests are now too wet to support any real brush or woodland fires.