While a burn ban has not been issued in Mountain Home or Baxter County, area firefighters are already seeing the results of weather conditions leading to meteorologists advising Arkansas faces the potential of a flash drought.
A flash drought is when warm and dry conditions and evaporating soil moisture happen quickly.
On Thursday afternoon, Norfork volunteer firemen found themselves fighting a brush fire over two to three acres threatening a number of residences.
Norfork Fire Chief Frankie Baker says residents need to be mindful of the burn threat that already exits.
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Chief Baker is urging folks to not burn at this time.
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Mountain Home Fire Marshal Gary Pyska is also urging residents to exercise caution when burning.
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Like Chief Baker, Fire Marshal Pyska urges residents to be mindful of fires when utilizing burn barrels.
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Pyska reminds Mountain Home residents the wind must be 5 mile-per-hour or less in order to burn.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor, released Tuesday, shows 60 percent of the state as abnormally dry, up from 47 percent a week earlier and from 5 percent the week before that. The western two-thirds of the state is in the abnormally dry are.
U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist Brad Rippey told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that drought conditions are developing quickly.
The National Weather Service says dry conditions are forecast through early next week, when a slight chance of rain is forecast starting Tuesday.
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