Gorgeous In Vermont, Northeast, But It's A REALLY Bad Time To Play With Fire

My weather dog Jackson keeps a careful
eye on the bursh pile burn I had last winter
I did it with a burn permit, and
with snow on the ground to prevent it
from spreading. Now that's it's dry don't
set a burn pile like this going.  n

UPDATE:

Dryness is getting worse out there in Vermont and the rest of New England today as the humidity remains low and breezes continue.

A red flag warning is up for most of New Hampshire and much of Maine. That means there's definitely a danger of fire.

Outdoor burning is banned in New York State. There are no particular bans in Vermont, but some towns are probably denying burn permits to residents,.

I wouldn't do any outdoor burns if I were you.


PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

The sun is out very nicely this spring Thursday in Vermont.

It's a little cool, but oh well.

The great news is every day through Sunday looks like it will be sunny. And it will be turning warmer each day.

It could even get to 70 in a few spots Sunday.

Not to rain on your sunny parade, but I do have a word of caution: Whatever you do, don't burn your brush pile this week.

And no throwing cigarette butts out your car window!!

This time of year, and this kind of weather this time of year, is prime wildfire and brush fire season in Vermont, and much of the rest of the Northeast and southeastern Canada for that matter.

There's several reasons why.

The most obvious is the dry, dead grass and brush out there. Things haven't really started to green up much yet, and the dead stuff from last year is still there, ready to burst into flames with any spark.

There's no leaves on the trees yet, either, so the warm April sun can penetrate the forest floor and dry things out quickly. Even if there's still mud underfoot from the thawing frost in the ground, the stuff on top is tinder dry.

High pressure systems, the kind that cause this kind of bright, sunny weather, tend to have particularly low humidity this time of year. Especially if the high pressure systems comes from southern Canada.

Those southern Canadian highs tend to be particularly dry this time of year.

Again, there's no leaves on the trees, so there's no leaves to transpire moisture into the air, increasing the humidity.

If the air is super dry, like it will be the rest of this week, things dry out faster and also burn more readily.

The more days in a row it's sunny and nice, the drier it gets. So the fire danger will increase as we head toward the weekend.

Fortunately, it doesn't look like it's going to be particularly windy this week. High winds obviously fan and spread flames, so the relative lack of wind this week is good news.

Again. Be careful with fire. Always. But especially this week.