Fire News

National Preparedness Level: 2 (On a scale from 1 to 5)

Northern California PL: 2

Southern California PL: 2

Smaller, local incidents are listed in the Happening Now section.

Current National Situation:

May 21, 2022 – Initial attack was light with 123 new fires reported. 6 new large fires reported and 3 large fires contained.

Regional fires

California fires

Out of state fires

Map information provided courtesy of the UDSA Remote Sensing Application Center using data provided by the National Interagency Fire Center. The data is subject to change.

Weather Outlook

Upper troughing will continue across the Intermountain West and northern Plains but begin to weaken with an upper ridge along the East Coast. A cold front will slowly push east into the eastern Great Lakes, Ohio, and Tennessee Valleys, then south and west into southern Texas and central New Mexico. Elevated fire weather conditions are likely across portions of eastern Arizona into central New Mexico during the afternoon where breezy west to southwest winds will coincide with continued low relative humidity. However, cooler temperatures and higher relative humidity will lead to very short burn periods across eastern New Mexico into central Texas behind the cold front. Alaska will continue to warm today with above normal temperatures and afternoon relative humidity below 30% for much of the Interior with locally critical south winds off the Alaska Range. Thunderstorms with heavy rain will continue across much of Florida, with greatest thunderstorm chances across the central and northern part of the peninsula. Showers and thunderstorms will continue along and ahead of the cold front from eastern Texas into the Great Lakes. Scattered showers with mountain snow will continue across much of the Rockies as well, with the most widespread precipitation across northern Colorado.