Elevated fire danger

There is an elevated fire danger for all of northern Indiana and southwest Lower Michigan Monday and Tuesday. Breezy winds, warm temperatures, a very dry air mass, and dry soils are combining to establish conditions supportive of grass, shrub, brush, field, and ditch fires. Any fire that does develop will have the capacity to spread rapidly and in an uncontrollable manner. As of 1 PM Monday, there were no Red Flag Warnings or Fire Weather Watches in effect for the area. However, the National Weather Service does have a statement out pinpointing the dangerous fire weather conditions in place.

For the remainder of today and into Tuesday, temperatures will be in the 70s and low 80s, relative humidity values will be below 25%, winds will gust upwards of 20-30 MPH, and the ground will be unusually dry. Thus, burning of any kind is not recommended. That includes recreational burning and campfires. 

Cigarette buds and farm and lawn equipment can also trigger small fires with these conditions in place. Those small fires can then spread rapidly and grow into larger fires in a short duration of time. The National Weather Service warns that if you must burn during this period that you should check with local law enforcement and have some way of monitoring the conditions around the fire while it burns. Conditions will drastically improve by Tuesday evening as moisture surges in from the south ahead of a strong area of low pressure.