Utah
Utah is ‘drying out really rapidly’ ahead of Pioneer Day weekend, firefighters say
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SALT LAKE CITY — This month’s hotter and drier conditions are quickly increasing fire risk across Utah, leading to some new fire restrictions ahead of the Pioneer Day weekend.
“Things are drying out really rapidly,” said Salt Lake City Fire Capt. Shaun Mumedy.
Temperatures in Salt Lake City are currently more than 3 degrees above normal for the halfway point in July, according to National Weather Service data. High temperatures reached 106 degrees on Sunday, 1 degree shy of matching its all-time highest temperature ever recorded.
St. George also topped out at 114 degrees on both Saturday and Sunday, 3 degrees below its all-time record and the hottest temperature ever recorded in the state. Its average temperature is also above normal.
The hotter and drier conditions are drying out grasses and vegetation after a robust snow season. Salt Lake City firefighters responded to four different grass fires this weekend as grasses dry out, Mumedy said.
“That’s just going to continue to rise and a lot of that is due to the heat,” he said. “We (anticipate) seeing some more red flag days — high temperature, low humidity (and) high winds.”
While Salt Lake City isn’t adjusting its firework restrictions for the upcoming state holiday, some communities are. Ogden issued new fireworks and open flames restrictions in the city last week. Those will remain in place through mid-October because of hot and dry weather in the forecast. Park City also announced a ban on fireworks, campfires, slash piles and wood-burning fire pits within city limits, which takes effect Thursday.
Salt Lake City will likely have more firetrucks out on the road during the July 24 holiday, as well as the Saturday and Sunday before it and the Tuesday afterward, when fireworks are legal again. Mumedy said the point of this tactic is to stop fires quickly once they begin.
Human causes aren’t the only threat in and around the region ahead of the holiday. The forecast calls for a mix of dry and wet lightning across parts of Idaho, Nevada and Utah through at least Wednesday, said Basil Newmerzhycky, a fire meteorologist for the Great Basin Coordination Center, in a video posted by the agency Monday morning. These have the potential to cause new fires.
Newmerzhycky said conditions have been dry across most of the West over the past two weeks; however, some relief may be on the way. One weather service model he presented indicates parts of Utah could get up to a 10th of an inch of rain or more by Thursday, as a result of the wet storms passing through the state.
More moisture is possible in southwest Utah this weekend, though it likely won’t be the same as the “deep monsoon,” Newmerzhycky adds.
“This could either cause some more lightning starts on the outer edge of (the Great Basin), up north — maybe bring some moderation in southern areas,” he said. “But, by and large, the deep monsoonal moisture still stays to our south … any (precipitation) we get will probably be on the light side.”
The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center’s one- and two-week outlooks show Utah has a higher probability for above-normal temperatures to persist throughout the end of the month. The outlooks also note that southern and eastern Utah have higher probabilities for above-normal precipitation to close out July, so more moisture could be headed toward Utah soon.
The Great Basin Coordination Center lists parts of southern and central Utah as having above-normal fire risk this month. It is currently forecast to return back to normal risk in August.
This year’s fire season has been slower than in years past, but it is slowly picking up. As of Monday, there have been 290 wildfires in Utah that have burned 3,410 acres, according to the Utah Wildfire Dashboard, operated by state and federal firefighters.
Increasing burn injuries
Wildfire risk isn’t the only concern with rising temperatures. Salt Lake City search-and-rescue crews responded to the Ensign Peak area over the weekend to rescue a hiker who became exhausted after his or her hiking group used all of its water.
This is the time of year firefighters receive many calls tied to heat exhaustion, as well as injured children and pets, Mumedy said. Dr. Giavonni Lewis, medical director of the University of Utah Health Burn Center, said the center has seen a rise in burn injuries in recent years, many tied to either heat or summer recreation activities like campfires and fireworks.
She said the center receives about 60 to 90 people a week, resulting in an uptick of about 2,000 patients from two years ago.
“Some of the common ways that we see people, our pediatric patients specifically, be injured is walking over campfires (they) think are extinguished but they’re not or they’re walking across hot asphalt, which is actually much, much hotter than what (they) may anticipate,” she said, explaining they’ve had many cases of children who were running around a campfire before accidentally falling in.
Lewis recommends that families build a 3-foot barrier to keep children away from hot embers.
Firework-related burns and injuries also typically increase in July when fireworks are legal again. While she understands it may not be the most exciting option to celebrate Pioneer Day, she recommends glowsticks and glitter as a safer alternative, especially for young children.