{"id":28931,"date":"2024-03-02T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/what-is-a-red-flag-warning\/"},"modified":"2024-03-02T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T17:00:00","slug":"what-is-a-red-flag-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/what-is-a-red-flag-warning\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a \u2018red flag warning?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jerry
Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<br><br>The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for the Mancos area Monday and Tuesday.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere are two parts to red flag warnings,\u201d said Mark Wankowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service\u2019s office in Pueblo. \u201cThere\u2019s a meteorological part and there\u2019s a fuels portion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerning fuels, Wankowski said the forecast agency gets information from state and federal land managers and the U.S. Forest Service on whether trees, grasslands, and other vegetation are \u201cconducive to burning.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the meteorological portion, Wankowski said there are two key criteria: sustained winds or gusts that exceed 24 mph for three or more hours, plus relative humidity levels of 15% or lower.<\/p>\n

Together, these conditions present extreme wildfire danger. Under a red flag warning, \u201cIf a fire did develop, you\u2019ll see a rapid expansion in burns,\u201d Wankowski explained.<\/p>\n

How common are red flag warnings in Colorado?<\/div>\n

According to National Weather Service data, federal forecasters issued red flag warnings on 114 days in 2023. For nearly a third of those days, at least one part of the state was susceptible to the rapid spread of wildfire.<\/p>\n

However, red flag warnings aren\u2019t always indicative of when Colorado will or will not see a wildfire. For example, the Marshall Fire, the most destructive fire in state history, started on Dec. 30, 2021. There was no red flag warning in effect that day, per the data.<\/p>\n

How does a red flag warning differ from a fire weather watch?<\/div>\n

A fire weather watch is a precursor to a red flag warning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we think red flag conditions will be possible, we can issue a fire weather watch up to 48 hours in advance,\u201d Wankowski explained.<\/p>\n

If the criteria for a red flag warning are projected, the National Weather Service can issue a warning up to 24 hours in advance.<\/p>\n

What shouldn\u2019t I do during a red flag warning?<\/div>\n

\u201cAnything that would cause a spark,\u201d Wankowski said.<\/p>\n

This includes obvious activities, like creating campfires and burning waste. But Wankowski also had other examples.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re cutting your lawn during a red flag day and your lawn mower hits a rock and creates a spark,\u201d that can start a wildfire.<\/p>\n

Farmers can also ignite a wildfire using machinery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should not be working in their fields or using something that could cause a spark,\u201d Wankowski cautioned.<\/p>\n

Marcel Mesatas of the Pueblo Fire Department noted that welding and grinding activities should also be avoided, as should vehicles dragging chains.<\/p>\n

Plus, there\u2019s the issue of a \u201chot box,\u201d or locked wheel on a train car. These wheels \u201ccan bind or the brake can hold the wheel locked,\u201d Maestas explained. Then, as the train \u201cgoes down the tracks, it emits sparks and it\u2019ll start fires all along the railroad lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maestas said he\u2019s seen this happen several times.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople cause the majority of wildfires,\u201d Wankowski said. \u201cSo that is why we try and educate people when conditions are right for rapid spread of fire.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McBride\/Durango Herald<br><br>The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for the Mancos area Monday and Tuesday.du1-i-syn \u201cThere are two parts to red flag warnings,\u201d said Mark Wankowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service\u2019s office in Pueblo. \u201cThere\u2019s a meteorological part and there\u2019s a fuels portion.\u201d Concerning fuels, Wankowski said the forecast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,350,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-fire","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28931"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}