Lightning sparks small wildfire in BWCAW
May 18—Continued very dry weather across the Northland has spurred a few wildfires, including a blaze that has burned across 10 acres inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Superior National Forest officials Tuesday morning said lightning on Monday started a wildfire northwest of Bezhik Lake in the LaCroix Ranger District.
The fire is not near any campsites or canoe routes and no travel restrictions are in place. Due to the remote location and late observation time on Monday no effort was made to extinguish the fire. Crews were going to assess the situation again Tuesday to decide if and how to attempt to fight the fire.
Much of the Northland has rapidly moved into near-drought conditions with little or no rain so far in May. Warm days with very low humidity levels allow fires to grow fast.
The National Weather Service Tuesday morning issued a near critical fire weather advisory for northern St. Louis and Koochiching counties for today.
After being above normal for precipitation as recently as April, Duluth is 1.73 inches shy of normal rainfall for May. The last time Duluth saw more than a trace of rain was on April 26 when just over a half-inch fell.
Spring is usually Minnesota's busiest wildfire season. So far this year Minnesota has seen 1,065 wildfires that have burned across 32,910 acres, according to the Minnesota Interagency Fire Center in Grand Rapids.
Rain is forecast for most of the area in coming days, however, which should help snuff the fire danger. The National Weather Service in Duluth is forecasting a chance of rain every day through Sunday with significant rain possible Wednesday night and Thursday.
