In the dog days of summer, nothing quite grabs the attention of rural Montana quite like a red flag warning. It means low relative humidity, hot temperatures, gusty winds and dry fuels are combining to create perfect conditions for aggressive new fire starts.
Starting this week an updated designation, known as a “Particularly Dangerous Situation,” will be used for extreme conditions.
We’re jumping up and down screaming and yelling versus saying, ‘Hey, it’s going to be dangerous, be careful out there,'" National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Messina says. "We’re waving our hands, jumping on the roof yelling that this is going to be an unusual event.”
A PDS red flag warning will be used when little to no rain has fallen in the past 30 to 90 days and prolonged wind gusts of at least 40 miles an hour are anticipated.
Messina says the PDS tag will be used rarely; maybe once every three to five years. The National Weather Service says the designation would have been appropriate for the conditions that led to the Great Fire of 1910 which burned more than three million acres in a couple of days.
