Gusty winds and a lack of rain over the past couple of weeks has caused fires to flare up around the state. Firefighters are now battling two fires in the Tongue River Canyon in Sheridan County. One has grown to over two square miles.
Elsewhere, a red flag warning was issued last night around Cheyenne and Laramie, and there are two small fires burning near Laramie Peak, not far from a campground. One fire has been mostly contained, but the other flared up close by. Aaron Voos with the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest says it was a convenient turn of events.
The potential for growth is pretty low right now. We have pretty favorable weather forecast for today.
“What they were able to do yesterday when this new fire started, which is called the LaBonte Canyon Fire, the Little Beaver Fire was just a little bit to the west, so they were able to shift the resources that we had working the Little Beaver Fire right on over to the LaBonte Canyon Fire, which worked out well.”
But Voos says the winds seem to be dying down.
“The potential for growth is pretty low right now,” he says. “We have pretty favorable weather forecast for today. It’s supposed to be kind of cloudy conditions, the winds are supposed to be fairly calm, around ten miles an hour, max with a possibility for rain this afternoon.”
He says there’s no plan to issue a fire ban…yet. But if dry, windy conditions continue, it is still a possibility. He says the next few weeks are expected to be a mix of more hot, windy conditions and a few rainstorms. Lots of early summer rain means the fire danger in most areas of the state is moderate or even low, Voos says, with a few exceptions. There are fire bans in effect around Casper and Newcastle.