Red Flag Warning Issued for Otter Tail Counties as Fire Risk Rises

A warm, dry and windy setup pushed East and West Otter Tail counties into a Red Flag Warning, with southwest winds of 20 to 30 mph gusting to 45 mph and relative humidity dropping as low as 22 percent. Under those conditions, the National Weather Service in Grand Forks warned that any fire that starts can spread rapidly and become difficult to control.

The warning covered both counties from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. CDT and came after an earlier Fire Weather Watch for the same area on April 22, when forecasters flagged hazardous weather tied to low humidity and gusty winds. In the Pelican Rapids area, the forecast called for a high near 81 degrees, south-southeast winds of 13 to 22 mph and Wednesday night gusts as high as 33 mph, a combination that can dry out grasses, field edges and brush fast enough to turn routine outdoor work into a fire risk.

For Otter Tail County residents, the safest move was to leave outdoor burning off the schedule. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said it does not issue or activate open burning permits for large vegetative debris burning during red flag warnings, and it continued to discourage campfires. That warning matters because escaped debris fires are the number one cause of wildfires in Minnesota, making spring cleanup burns one of the most dangerous choices when wind and humidity line up against firefighters.

The agencies watching the weather urged caution across the county and the wider region. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources updates fire-danger and burning-restriction maps daily, and its wildfire prevention staff has been warning people to be careful with anything that could spark a wildfire. In Otter Tail County, that meant farmers, homeowners and businesses had to think twice before lighting brush piles, starting campfires or doing any outdoor burning that could send embers into dry grass.

The Red Flag Warning also landed during a broader stretch of fire-weather alerts across Minnesota. The Department of Natural Resources listed red-flag warning activity on April 20, April 21, April 22 and April 23, and on April 22 it said 54 counties were already under high fire danger. KAXE reported that most of Minnesota was under a Red Flag Warning that day, with the rest of the state facing near-critical fire weather conditions, showing how quickly the risk spread from one county line to the next.