ST. LOUIS – Concern is growing across Missouri and Illinois about the potential for active wildfires later this fall if more rain doesn’t come soon!

The St. Louis area has not received measurable rain since Sept. 27, and we are currently on pace for the driest October on record! As bad as that sounds, the situation is worse over central and western Missouri, where many spots are closing in on their longest stretch of dry weather in history!

Cody Norris, the public affairs officer with the U.S. Forest Service for the Mark Twain Forest, said the service is keeping a close watch on the dry weather.

“Not drought conditions yet, but we’re getting pretty close,” he said. “When you go outside, you can pick up some leaves and crunch them in your hands and feel if they are crispy or not.”

The crispy leaves are only one symptom of a much larger problem. The entire forest, as well as most of Missouri, is drying out fast. A key indicator the Forest Service uses to track the fire danger is the soil moisture. Norris said that is definitely on the low end of the scale. With no meaningful rain in the forecast, the situation will only get worse. Another big concern for Norris is the time of year.

“This is also the point of the year where we’re gonna have more people out in the forest,” he said. “Whether it’s hiking, soon to be all the hunting seasons are gonna be happening.”

And with more people comes a greater risk of controlled fires getting out of control. With the already very dry conditions, things could escalate quickly.

“It totally could happen,” Norris said. “If we continue in a drought and you get a spark and some big winds at the same time, they can carry wildfire quickly.”