Wildfire Risk In Northeast Ramps Up To Sky High Levels Today, Vermont Not Quite As Bad

A helicopter dumps water on a fire burning on hillsides near
Berlin, Connecticut this week. Photo from Fox61

Today is perhaps one of the riskiest days for wildfires in much of the Northeast that I can remember.  

The zone from central and southern New England down through New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland is especially bad. This area got a rare elevated to perhaps critical fire risk designation today in NOAA's daily fire weather outlook.

Wildfires are already burning in this region, most of which has not had any rain this month. Today, the humidity is low. A couple dry cold fronts are coming through the higher risk area this weekend, creating gusty, erratic winds but no rain. 

Winds are forecast to gust to at least 30 mph across most of the Northeast today. 

Connecticut Gov. Ted Lamont on Friday declared a state of emergency for the state, citing ongoing wildfires and the risk of more this weekend. At least five wildfires are burning in Connecticut.

By far the largest, known as the Hawthorne Fire, has been burning for five days so far and has covered nearly 120 acres on and around Lamentation Mountain in Berlin. That's about halfway between Hartford and New Haven. This fire was responsible for the death of a firefighter earlier this week. 

In New Jersey the state has imposed tight restrictions on all outdoor burning statewide. That means no open fires on the ground including campfires. It also means no tiki torches, fireworks, charcoal grills or anything else that can't immediately be turned off.

New Jersey residents can still use elevated stoves or barbecue grills using only propane, natural gas or electricity.

VERMONT'S RISK

We in Vermont have been on the northern edge of the incredible dry zone in the Northeast. We have been clipped by the outskirts of storm systems passing by to the north in Canada.

Which means rainfall has been unimpressive this autumn, but at least we're getting a little, especially in northern parts of the state. 

That state of affairs should continue for the next week.  Since little rain will fall and very dry air and gusty winds will reign between the sprinkles, the Vermont fire danger isn't going away. But at least we're better off than southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.

The first of the cold fronts comes through this afternoon, with some scattered light showers, especially north. Not everybody will see rain, but we'll take anything we can get. The Vermont Department of Forest Parks and Recreation rates today's fire risk as "moderate," meaning there could be isolated instances fire trouble, but we should be able to handle it.

Don't burn your brush pile this weekend, though. It's still chancy. 

Another front will bring more scattered rain and even snow showers Sunday afternoon and night, especially north. That will keep the fire danger moderate, at least for places north of Route 4. 

A warm front should clip northern Vermont Tuesday night with up to a quarter inch of rain north of Route 2, but pretty much nothing south of Route 4. 

The next shot at any rain after that would be Thursday night.