Midwest Grapples With Wildfires Amid Record Heat and Dry Conditions

The National Weather Service placed most of the Upper Midwest and part of the Northern Plains on high alert on Monday as temperatures approached 100 degrees and extremely dry conditions created an elevated risk for wildfires in the region.

The unseasonably high temperatures and relative humidity levels at or below 20 percent were already fueling wildfires in several states, where temperatures approached or broke records.

In Minnesota, all but seven of the state’s 87 counties were under the red flag warning, the term used for high alert for wildfires, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources.

“Fire danger is extreme across the state due to hot, dry, and windy conditions,” the agency wrote on social media. “This is a dangerous time for wildfires.”

On Sunday, the temperature in the Twin Cities reached 90 degrees, breaking the previous record of 88 degrees that had been set in 1900. The heat was expected to continue at least through Wednesday, the Weather Service said.

The conditions had already wrought havoc near Brimson, Minn., an unincorporated community in the northeastern part of the state. There, the Camp House fire had consumed at least 750 acres since Sunday, the Minnesota Interagency Fire Center said.

The fire destroyed several cabins and forced dozens of people to evacuate, the sheriff’s department in St. Louis County, Minn., said. No injuries were reported, according to the department, which added on Monday that a second wildfire was burning in the county.

The fires were among roughly 20 burning in the Upper Midwest and Northern Plains, according to the website fireweatheravalanche.org.

In North Dakota, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians reminded people on Sunday that the tribe had declared a fire emergency earlier this month and that outdoor grilling was prohibited. At the time of the emergency declaration, the tribe said that 13 fires were burning on the reservation.

An area of “critical” wildfire risk — the second level of severity on a three-level scale — was in place from northern Nebraska to northwestern Minnesota on Monday, according to the Storm Prediction Center. An area of lower-level risk was across a wider swath of the Northern Plains, the center added.

Forecasters said a day of low humidity, strong winds up to 30 miles per hour and record-setting temperatures in the high 90s were expected, all of which contributed to an elevated risk of fire for the afternoon and evening.

Dry conditions and more record temperatures are expected again Tuesday, contributing to an “elevated” wildfire risk, the first level of the scale, along the Red River on the border of the Dakotas and Minnesota, forecasters said.