Elevated risk of wildfire spread continues Sunday

Long Island and the New York metro region continue to be at an elevated risk of wildfire spread today, the National Weather Service said in a statement this morning.

The red flag warning is no longer in effect.

Dry weather conditions, relative humidity near 20% to 30%, and light winds gusting to 20 mph persist today. With continued dry fuel conditions — dry grasses and leaves — due to lack of rainfall the past month, there is an increased risk of wildfire spread should ignition occur, the weather service said.

“Be sure to properly extinguish or dispose of any potential ignition sources, including smoking materials such as cigarette butts,” the weather service said in the statement.

Afternoon relative humidity values will climb early in the week ahead, reaching 30% to 40% Monday afternoon and over 50% Tuesday afternoon, which should lower the risk of fire spread, though dry conditions are expected to persist into late week, the weather service said.

There is no rain in the forecast for northeast Suffolk throughout the week, according to the National Weather Service in Upton.

The region has experienced a prolonged period of dry weather, with the last significant rainfall occurring locally on Aug. 19, according to National Weather Service data.

Rainfall amounts have been far less than normal the past two months, based on 30-year statistical averages used by the National Weather Service to calculate “normal” values.

Rainfall totals were 0.30 inches in September, when the normal rainfall amount is 4.26 inches. In October so far, rainfall has totaled about 0.11 inches where the normal rainfall amount for the month of October is 4.01 inches.

Temperatures in the region have been warmer than average, too. The average daily temperature in October so far has been 70.4º F. The normal average in October is 64.4ºF. The average daily temperature in September was 1.1 degrees higher than the normal average — 75.8º F compared to 74.7º F.