Utah faces historic red-flag warning as Cottonwood Fire expands amid drought
A rare red-flag warning was issued for parts of Utah as the Cottonwood Fire, the nation’s largest active blaze, spreads under extreme wind, heat and low humidity conditions.
Firefighters are battling the Cottonwood Fire, the largest wildfire currently burning in the United States, in a sparsely populated area of southern Utah. The National Weather Service in Salt Lake City issued a rare “particularly dangerous situation” red-flag warning on Friday, citing a volatile mix of high winds, temperatures and single-digit humidity.
"Our biggest challenge right now is that we have single digit humidities and the wind gusts are around 45 miles per hour," said Alyssa Mason, a fire spokesperson, adding that fuel moisture levels are between 2 and 8 percent.
The red-flag conditions are expected to continue through Sunday, hampering containment efforts. On Friday, strong winds forced incident managers to temporarily pull crews from the line and ground firefighting aircraft, including helicopters.
The blaze has already consumed an area larger than Salt Lake City and remains uncontained. Cooler temperatures and higher humidity later next week may provide a brief reprieve, according to the Weather Service.
The fire occurs amid a broader drought affecting Utah, Nevada, Colorado and other Intermountain West states, following an unusually dry winter and record-low snowpack. Governor Spencer Cox issued an emergency order restricting fireworks through the Fourth of July in response to the heightened fire risk.
A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that forest fires now burn ten times more acreage annually than in 1985, linking larger, more severe fires to climate-related changes and historic fire-suppression practices. The study’s lead author, Mitchell Hung, noted that the loss of forests has significant socioeconomic impacts.
