Mark Twain National Forest asks visitors to keep fire safety in mind this summer.
Fire danger is still high! While rain has fallen across portions of Mark Twain National Forest, allowing the Forest to drop from an “extreme” fire danger level to a “high” fire danger level, conditions are still extremely dry across the southern and western portions of the Forest.
Such dry conditions mean wildfires could start easily. Even areas that received recent rain are not immune from wildfires.
Rain can appear to quickly rejuvenate fine fuels, like grass, but it takes more than a single rainstorm to bring large trees’ moisture levels back to normal.
Even after some rain, it would only take a few hot days to dry out the fine fuels and return to very high or extreme fire danger.
