Michiana burn bans

Yesterday, the Marshall County and Fulton County Commissioners issued a county wide burn ban, in effect for the time being. Right now Marshall county is the only county in Michiana that has issued a burn ban, but even though your county is not under a burn ban, dry conditions are fairly similar across our area, with most of us staying in the Abnormally Dry category on the Drought Monitor released last Thursday. Marshall County and Fulton County officials want you to avoid burning recreational bonfires and the burning of wooded debris and/or waste, mostly big fires that are harder to control. They still do allow small campfires, as well as fireworks and grills. Just make sure if you are dealing with any of the exceptions that you are being very cautious, making sure the fire of the charcoal is completely extinguished before leaving it unattended.

It has been feeling dry in Michiana, with low humidity values and high temperatures reflecting the dry conditions that we’ve been seeing over the past couple of weeks. Right now, we have tied the dry streak record from last year at 19 days and with no precipitation expected today, we will likely beat it. We’re also on track to get close to one of the longest dry streaks in South Bend, at 25 days set back in 1979, though we could see a sprinkle at the beginning of next week that would make us either tie or fall just short of that record. Hopefully Michiana doesn’t see almost a month without rain. But in September so far we have not seen any rain and with less than half of the month left we could end up in some of the driest Septembers of all time. Again we do have a slight chance for some precipitation going into the beginning of next week, so likely we will see a tiny bit of relief, but over all the end of September and beginning of October are still going to be looking drier than average for Michiana.