Heat and Fire Weather Concerns in the West

Heat will build over the Intermountain West and the Southwest the next couple of days. Lightning from dry thunderstorms can create new fire starts and combined with gusty winds may cause a fire to rapidly grow in Oregon and northern California. Elevated fire weather conditions are also expected in the Great Basin. Flash flooding will be possible in Arizona and west Texas, especially in burn scars. Read More >

Winter 2022-2023 was warmer than average and with higher precipitation than average overall. The warmer weather was observed region wide with mean temperatures about 1 to 3 degrees above average. Precipitation and snowfall was above average for most places, with an exception being parts of northern Minnesota mainly north and west of the Iron Range. There, snow was a bit below average and precipitation around to slightly below average. For most of the winter, the storm tracks favored northwest Wisconsin and parts of northeast Minnesota, bringing the heavy snows in December and resulting in a monthly record snowfall for Duluth. Additional snow and even some rain fell in January and February. Drought that was previously present especially across Douglas/Bayfield counties has been removed, leaving only a sliver of some abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions in northern and north-central Minnesota.