New Hampshire was rated at a “very high” danger for wildfires on Friday, the first time this year the designation has been applied throughout the entire state.
The National Weather Service warned that low humidity and steady winds will “combine with dead and dry fuels such as grass, leaves and twigs to create the potential for uncontrolled fire spread across New Hampshire and Western Maine today.”
Outdoor burning has been banned without a special permit in virtually all communities in the region.
The warning comes as two months of low rainfall have put most of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine into drought conditions, with things particularly bad in the Upper Valley of the Connecticut River.
Little or no rain is expected in the region for the next week.