Fire weather watch issued for Albany County, wildfire risk rises

A Fire Weather Watch has put the Laramie Foothills and High Plains on notice as dry grass, low humidity and strong wind line up for fast wildfire growth in Albany County. Ranchers, construction crews, recreation outfitters and anyone driving through rural ground east of Interstate 25 need to treat the next day as a high-risk window for any spark in cured vegetation.

National Weather Service Cheyenne said a Fire Weather Watch was in effect for all areas along and east of Interstate 25 from noon Tuesday through 8 p.m. Wednesday. Forecasters expected afternoon relative humidity to fall into the 10 to 15 percent range Monday through Wednesday, with conditions described as very favorable for rapid fire spread. The strongest winds were expected Wednesday, when gusts up to 65 mph were possible in the wind-prone regions of southeast Wyoming.

That combination matters in Albany County because open grasslands, foothills and exposed high plains can turn a small ignition into a moving fire before help arrives. The watch itself is not a fire, but it is a clear warning that the county could shift quickly into a Red Flag Warning if conditions worsen. NWS said precipitation chances could return by the weekend, but the timing and amounts remained uncertain.

The safest move over the next 24 hours is to cancel open burning, delay welding, grinding or other spark-producing work, and keep vehicles and trailers out of dry grass. Campfires, off-road driving and recreational target shooting are also common human-caused ignition sources that land managers try to limit when fire danger rises. Albany County’s fire restrictions under Emergency Resolution No. 2026-001 began March 25 and are scheduled to run no later than Nov. 1 unless lifted or re-imposed sooner; the county said those restrictions were temporarily lifted May 22, allowing open burning and fireworks, but conditions are evaluated continuously and restrictions can return quickly.

Albany County Fire Warden Chad Dinges is the county contact for fire restriction questions. On federal land, the Bureau of Land Management says preventive fire restrictions are aimed at exactly the kinds of activities that can start a blaze, and the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin National Grassland point residents to local Forest Service offices and the Casper Dispatch Center for the latest fire restrictions and wildland fire news.

Albany County has seen how abruptly weather can turn violent. On June 6, 2018, an EF-3 tornado struck central Albany County about 8 miles north of Laramie, scouring grass and snapping utility poles. That history is part of why local forecasters take a dry, windy setup seriously: in this terrain, the margin between caution and crisis can disappear in minutes.