A large wildfire in southern Utah is proving difficult to fight as a rare blend of extreme heat, gusty winds and very low humidity creates critical fire weather across the Intermountain West.
The Cottonwood Fire, burning near Marysvale, has grown to a size larger than Salt Lake City and remains uncontained. The sun-set photograph of the blaze was taken on June 26, 2026, by Ty ONeil of the AP.
Forecasters in Salt Lake City issued an unprecedented “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning for parts of Utah — the first time the local National Weather Service office has used that phrasing — warning of a volatile mix of strong winds, high temperatures and single-digit relative humidities. The dangerous conditions were expected to persist into Sunday.
Alyssa Mason, a spokesperson assigned to the incident, said crews are facing “single digit humidities and the wind gusts are around 45 miles per hour,” with fuel moistures estimated between 2 and 8 percent. Those conditions forced managers to temporarily pull firefighters off the line, and winds grounded helicopters and other aircraft, limiting aerial suppression options.
The same dry pattern affects much of the region. After an unusually dry winter, snowpack in parts of the Rocky Mountains reached record low levels and melted earlier than normal, leaving reservoirs and fuels drier than typical for this time of year. Widespread drought across Utah, Nevada, Colorado and neighboring states has compounded fire risk.
State officials have responded to the heightened danger. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox issued an emergency order temporarily restricting fireworks displays through the Fourth of July period, citing the unusual severity of this fire season and urging residents to heed warnings from firefighters.
Nationally, most wildfires are started by people, the U.S. Forest Service says, and researchers say warming temperatures and changing precipitation patterns are making fires larger and more destructive. A recent study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that high-severity fires now burn roughly ten times more area annually than they did in 1985.
Scientists note that fire itself is a natural and sometimes beneficial process for many ecosystems, but a century of aggressive suppression has left many forests overgrown and more vulnerable to catastrophic burns. Mitchell Hung, who led the study as a graduate student at UCLA, warned that the loss of these forests has real socioeconomic consequences beyond aesthetics.
Forecasters said firefighters might see some relief next week if cooler temperatures and higher humidity move into the region, but ongoing drought and the strain of multiple large fires nationwide mean risks and resource challenges are likely to continue throughout the season.