Fire Weather Outlook Discussion
Issued by NWS
Issued by NWS
299 FNUS22 KWNS 100658 FWDDY2 Day 2 Fire Weather Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 0157 AM CDT Mon Aug 10 2026 Valid 111200Z - 121200Z ...Synopsis... Areas of fire weather concerns will persist into Tuesday across the northern Great Basin as well as across portions of the southern High Plains. The upper ridge currently in place across the Southwest will remain in place through Tuesday. Although some de-amplification is anticipated by early Wednesday, the overall synoptic regime is expected to largely remain in place and will continue to promote weak low-level gradient winds for most regions. Nonetheless, some areas of the northern Great Basin will continue to experience terrain augmentations to the wind field that should support breezy conditions within a dry air mass. ...Northern Great Basin... Warm and dry conditions are expected to persist for much of the northern Great Basin on Tuesday with deep boundary-layer mixing and RH minimums near/below 15% likely by late afternoon. Although gradient winds will be modest (10-15 mph), stronger zonal flow near the top of the boundary layer will likely mix to the surface and manifest as frequent gusts between 15-25 mph. Stronger, but more localized winds are expected within the lee of the northern Sierra Nevada, though the Snake River Valley in eastern Idaho, and across eastern WY where terrain influences will promote winds between 15-20 mph. ...Southern High Plains... A weak lee cyclone is forecast to migrate into the central Plains by Tuesday afternoon due to a modest increase in low-level warm advection across a residual baroclinic zone. Closer proximity to the surface low/trough will likely result in somewhat weaker wind speeds Tuesday afternoon compared to what was observed yesterday or is expected today. However, dry conditions will prevail with RH minimums in the teens and low 20s expected, and winds will likely increase to near 15 mph by late afternoon amid deep boundary-layer mixing. This should support another day of elevated fire weather conditions over a region that has seen several days of dry, windy weather. ...Dry Thunderstorms... A plume of monsoonal moisture is expected to persist across the Great Basin and Four Corners on Tuesday. Continued northward advection of higher moisture content over the next 48 hours should yield PWAT values generally on the order of 0.75 to 1.0 inch across much of the region, which will most likely favor a mix of wet and dry thunderstorms. Deterministic forecast soundings suggest a narrow band of dry thunderstorms may materialize across northeast UT into southern WY and northern CO Tuesday afternoon, but the overall signal from recent CAM ensembles suggests this potential may be fairly spatially limited. While dry lightning strikes will remain possible outside of the heavier precipitation cores, confidence in the coverage of predominantly dry thunderstorms remains too limited for additional highlights at this time. ..Moore.. 08/10/2026 ...Please see www.spc.noaa.gov/fire for graphic product... $$