By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH
Indiana Correspondent

SYRACUSE, Ind. — The red flag fire advisories issued at the beginning of the month were a first for the National Weather Service’s (NWS) northern Indiana office.

A red flag watch was issued for April 1, and a warning for the following day, said Justin Arnott, a meteorologist in the office.
The advisories meant the combination of low humidity, unseasonably warm temperatures and windy conditions could cause fires to spread rapidly, he said.

“We don’t tend to use this warning here,” Arnott explained.
“This was the first time we’ve used it. “Our goal was mainly to just let people know it probably wasn’t a good idea to go out and burn.”
No problems were reported in the areas monitored by the northern Indiana NWS office, Arnott said. In addition to most of northern Indiana, the office also issued advisories the same days for northwestern Ohio and parts of southern Michigan.

At the same time, other regional NWS offices issued advisories for additional areas of Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Parts of Kentucky, Illinois and Tennessee were also under red flag warnings.
“There was a worry about grass fires, which could have quickly burned a pretty sizeable field,” he explained.

“That time between snow melt and before things start to green up can be a concern if conditions are right.”

Fire weather programs are relatively new in many areas in the central part of the United States, said Jennifer Zeltwanger, fire weather and aviation program manager for the NWS central region headquarters in Kansas City, Mo.

“Some locations may not yet be accustomed to seeing red flag warnings because they do not occur as frequently as out west, and some locations have not been doing it for as long,” she said. Spring and fall are the most common times to see this type of situation develop in this part of the country, Zeltwanger said.
“In spring, there is a lot of old, dead grass and other dry fuel that is not yet greened up, and those drier fuels can combine with dry air and windy conditions to create potentially dangerous fire weather conditions.

“Similar situations occur in fall when grasses are cured and become dormant without much live, green grass left. While the very dry airmass and low relative humidity was somewhat unusual for that part of the country, if there is a time for these red flag warning conditions to line up, spring pre-green up time is it.”

Farmers or anyone who owns open fields or forested areas can help the situation by keeping their land free of dead brush or anything else that could be used as fuel for a fire, Arnott said.

The chance of grass fires occurring has already decreased, as spring green up is well underway, and humidity levels have increased, he added.