Dangerous fire weather to hit the West with combination of lightning and wind

WildfiresDangerous fire weather to hit the West with combination of lightning and windA cold front in the forecast will raise the fire risk in a region where drought has left vegetation dry and primed to burn.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00A vehicle travels toward thick smoke rising from the Iron Fire burning near Eureka, Utah, on Sunday.Charles McClintock Wilson / ZUMA Press Wire via ReutersShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJune 24, 2026, 5:46 PM EDTBy Evan BushA counterintuitive recipe for wildfires is brewing across drought-stricken Western states: a cold front.Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscriptionGet exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.Forecasters expect the large cold front to develop in the Pacific Northwest on Thursday then push southeast into the Intermountain West, creating dry lightning along the storm’s leading edge. The lightning could spark fires, and powerful winds throughout the weekend could spread any new blazes while exacerbating others already burning. “We have high risk for lightning moving across southern and eastern areas today and tomorrow, followed by several days of strong winds,” Basil Newmerzhycky, a forecaster for the Great Basin Coordination Center, said Wednesday in an online briefing. The Salt Lake City-based center organizes firefighting resources for the Intermountain West, a region that includes parts of Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.“Friday into the weekend, overall fire danger is very high to extreme. Several of our fires are already showing extreme fire behavior,” he added.Forecasters expect a strong windstorm beginning Friday in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. “A lot of the West is going to be very flammable during this period, with very low vegetation moisture, very dry fuel, essentially, and a lot of wind,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said Monday in a briefing. “I am concerned.” Swain said the w...