From Michigan to Nebraska, Midwest States Face an Early Wildfire Season

The Midwest received some much needed moisture this week following an especially hot and dry winter that hamstrung outdoor recreation and sparked an early spring wildfire season in several states.

Parts of the Midwest saw as much as 24 inches of snow and rain by Wednesday morning, according to the National Weather Service. The powerful storm, which worked its way west from New England, caused mayhem on the roads and temporarily knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people.

Still, the precipitation is unlikely to break the dry spell that has overtaken most of the Midwest, officials say, with some states already battling hundreds of fires even before the official start of spring last week. The dry conditions and overall lack of snow cover, they say, now threatens to extend the region’s spring wildfire season well into the end of the year.

“We’re seeing extreme fire behavior, red flag warnings in March, which we normally don’t see,” William Glesener, the wildfire operations supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said in an interview. “Most years in Minnesota, fire season starts sometime in April, maybe late March in southern Minnesota.”

A similar situation is playing out in Wisconsin, said Catherine Koele, a wildfire prevention specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, noting that the state was battling hundreds of blazes weeks before the start of peak fire season. “Year to date, we’ve had close to 300 wildfires statewide,” she said. “And the normal year-to-date 10-year average is about 40 fires.”

Firefighters in Michigan are also battling early blazes, and Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen declared a state disaster last month after a major wildfire burned more than 71,000 acres in 24 hours, destroying at least two homes and forcing several residents to evacuate.

While wildfires are common in the Midwest, the region isn’t known for its wildfire season, which, compared to that of the American West, is relatively tame. Its moist climate and abundant vegetation typically keeps fires from raging out of control. But for decades, wildfire threats have been growing in the Midwest and around the globe, in part because of climate change, scientists say.

“We have to keep in mind that some amount of fire is natural and needed, but that the fires that we are seeing in recent—I would say over the past 20 years or so—are really emblematic of a shift toward a warmer climate,” said Kristina Dahl, principal climate scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ climate and energy program.

Wildfires in the Midwest, like in much of the world, have decreased in number, experts say, largely because of increased human development efforts such as agriculture, which requires the clear cutting of forests and artificial irrigation. But research also shows that larger and more intense wildfires are generally trending up—meaning that the fires that do ignite are burning bigger, hotter and faster. They’re also emerging in landscapes and seasons in which they were previously rare.

“The decrease in the number of fires is a robust finding globally, but it’s one of the only fire metrics that is trending in a direction that would be positive for people,” Dahl said. “If we’re looking at fire severity, if we’re looking at the size of wildfires, by all those other metrics … fires are growing worse.”

The severity of the fires, in particular, is sounding alarm bells, Dahl said, because intensely hot fires can kill even the most resilient trees, and some forests simply aren’t recovering.

For Midwest states, the evolving situation has mainly meant a longer fire season with fewer breaks. Specifically, states like Minnesota and Wisconsin usually experience what’s called a “bimodal fire season”—they see fires ignite in the spring and again in the fall, with a reprieve during the summer months when vegetation is greenest.

But that’s shifted in recent years, Glesener said, amid a flash drought that’s covering much of the Midwest. Instead of two fire seasons, he said, Minnesota has been experiencing one extended fire season that starts in the spring and tails off through the fall. That has meant higher costs for the state to pay for things like extra hours for firefighters, he said. Already, the National Interagency Fire Center, which coordinates the national response to wildland fires, is forecasting high risk this spring for “significant wildfire” in the Midwest through at least May, with precipitation expected to be “below normal.”

As the situation has evolved, Minnesota firefighting crews have had to adjust their tactics, said Karen Harrison, a wildfire prevention specialist with the state’s Department of Natural Resources. Most notably, she said, the state is hiring its seasonal workers early and preparing to fight potential blazes in more places.

Normally, wildfires in Minnesota follow the receding snow cover as it melts, moving from the south of the state to the north, Harrison said. That pattern provides some predictability and helps fire crews plan for their suppression efforts. But with little to no snow this winter, she said, fires have been breaking out across the state, forcing crews statewide to be on the ready.

Harrison said that the state has also had to rely more often on partnerships with federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service to fill gaps during active years. Minnesota has increased its education efforts warning residents not to burn their yard waste when there’s no snow on the ground, she added. More than 90 percent of Minnesota’s wildfires are started by humans, she said, and residents should check with their state authorities to obtain permits before burning yard waste.

Burning piles of leaves, brush and other yard debris is a common practice for Minnesotans in spring, when there’s snow on the ground to prevent fire outbreaks. Between 2019 and 2023, the state issued about 30,000 permits to residents for this purpose, according to the Minnesota DNR.

Wisconsin is making similar adjustments, Koele said, and her agency has been monitoring for employee burnout. “That’s obviously a concern of ours,” she said. “It’s early in the season and we potentially could have a very lengthy season … just making sure folks are getting days off when we have a little reprieve here and there.”

Additional health costs should also be a concern for Midwesterners, Dahl said. The Midwest has seen some of the biggest increases in exposure to wildfire smoke over the last two decades, she said, in part because of its proximity to Canada, where a record number of major wildfires have burned in recent years.

“That’s really significant because the more we learn about exposure to wildfire smoke, the worse it looks,” she said. “We now know that it can affect pregnancy and has implications for preterm labor. It can affect cognitive abilities, respiratory issues and obviously can exacerbate all kinds of underlying conditions.”

For now, Glesener said, it appears that Minnesota can handle the new challenges, but that could change in the future as the state’s climate shifts.

“If we were to look 10 years out, 15 years out and pull out a crystal ball, I think things will have to change … to maintain the current level of service that we do for the citizens in the state,” he said. “It will require an effort not only by the agencies and the responders, but the public is going to have to start recognizing that maybe mulching or composting is a better tool to clean up and protect their properties than, say, [open] burning.”