News

Red flag fire warning expands to central Minnesota, St. Cloud through Thursday

Photo:

Oct 5, 2011 at 9:16 am

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (KNSI, AP) - Burning restrictions remained in place across much of central and southern Minnesota Wednesday because of the high fire risk.

The National Weather Service posted red flag warnings for much of the southern part of the state Tuesday because of the fire threat. The warning was expanded and extended to include much of central Minnesota, including St. Cloud, through Thursday.

RED FLAG WARNING: Read the fire warning issued by the National Weather Service for St. Cloud, central Minnesota

The warnings are in effect from noon to 7 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday.

DNR fire supervisor south Tom Romaine said the warnings could stay in place for a number of days until conditions change.

Romaine said unusually high temperatures and low humidity, combined with increasing winds, were creating potentially dangerous fire conditions across much of central and southern Minnesota.

St. Cloud was expected to reach a high temperature of 84 degrees Wednesday coupled with wind gusts between 15 and 25 mph during the afternoon hours.

Many counties have put burning restrictions in place and some have banned recreational fires. The potential also is high for crop field fires because of the low moisture content in corn and soybean fields.