COLORADO (KOAA) — Fire danger has been in the forecast for a while now, and you may have heard the first alert weather team explain the concern in terms of "elevated" or "critical".
There are three main categories: elevated, critical, and extreme. You can think of this on a 1 to 3 scale with 3 being the most dangerous conditions.
When red flag warnings are issued it means that we have winds of 25mph or higher and humidity values 15% or lower. These conditions are prime for wildfires to start and spread.
When we have "elevated" conditions, it means that conditions have quite reached red flag criteria. There is still a concern for fire danger, and sparks can still cause fires to spread quickly.
"Critical" conditions mean we have or are going to hit those conditions. When we hit these marks wildfires can easily get out of control.
It's rare, but we can have extreme conditions where winds exceed these conditions as well as humidity values. This doesn't mean that every time we get above 25mph or lower than 15%, that we have extreme conditions.
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