'Extreme' weather conditions could fuel erratic wildfires in western US
Conditions conducive for explosive and highly dangerous wildfire development will unfold later this week and persist through this weekend over a large part of the interior western United States.
AccuWeather’s Geoff Cornish breaks down the details of the forecast for escalating fire danger across the West.
Extreme fire conditions are forecast through this weekend across the interior western United States, adding to the wildfires that have erupted there recently.
Multiple wildfires, most notably the Cottonwood and Iron fires in Utah, have erupted across the Southwest in recent days amid hot, dry and breezy conditions. The Cottonwood Fire has consumed over 92,000 acres and was 0% contained as of Sunday morning. The fire has prompted evacuations.
Flames from Utah's Cottonwood Fire lit up the mountainside as the wildfire grew to more than 71,000 acres amid exceptionally dangerous fire weather conditions earlier in June 2026. (U.S. Forestry Service)
"Because of the extremely dry fuels (brush, leaves from last winter, dormant grasses) across the region, lightning strikes can quickly lead to new fire development," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.
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"If ongoing fires or any new fires persist into late week, the weather will turn dry, hot and very windy," Buckingham warned. Widespread highs will be in the 80s and 90s F.
The conditions through Sunday are forecast to pose a high to extreme risk of new fire development and erratic fire behavior for ongoing fires across a multistate area from Nevada and part of California to Colorado and parts of Wyoming, New Mexico and portions of the High Plains. Much of Utah is forecast to be in a very high to extreme wildfire risk.
Small brushfires sparked by embers from existing fires can quickly spread into fast-moving, raging firestorms.
"Because of multiple days of windy conditions expected, residents are urged to have an evacuation plan in place in the event of a fire," Buckingham advised.
This image showing billowing smoke from wildfires over Utah, spreading to Colorado, was captured on Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (NOAA GOES)
"Smoke from the large fires burning in the Great Basin was drifting eastward across parts of the Rockies and will affect some of the major cities along the Front Range," said Buckingham.
If the fires persist and are joined by new blazes, the residual high-level smoke may be carried for a thousand miles or more across the Great Plains and the eastern U.S. this weekend and into early week.
Cooler air is forecast to push into much of the Intermountain West, including the Cascades and Sierras east to the western Rockies, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, western Colorado and northern Arizona during the first part of this week. This is the same batch of air that will cool down the Northwest later this week and this weekend, with some wet snow possible over the highest elevations.
That cool push could bring a fresh round of thunderstorms — some bringing rain and others bringing dry lightning and additional wildfire ignition risk early this week.
Heat is forecast to rebuild over much of the region during the Fourth of July weekend.
As of Thursday, June 25, there have been 35,118 wildfires across the U.S., burning 2.9 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The number of fires and acres burned has exceeded the recent 10-year average.
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