Red Flag Warning Issued for Central and Western Minnesota
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on May 21, 2026, 3 months ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
NWS Twin Cities has issued a Red Flag Warning for portions of central, southwest, and west central Minnesota due to critical fire weather conditions with low humidity and strong winds.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Red Flag Warning
- Affected area
- Central, Southwest, and West Central Minnesota
- Issued
- May 21, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN
Fire-weather notices describe conditions that can support rapid fire spread; they do not report that a fire is present. Check local emergency sources for any active incident.
Record status: historical. It was issued 3 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Central, Southwest, and West Central Minnesota.
Alert Details
The National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN has issued a Red Flag Warning. The alert is classified as severe with likely certainty and expected urgency. It covers critical fire weather conditions.
Affected Areas
The warning affects portions of central, southwest, and west central Minnesota, specifically including Douglas, Stevens, Pope, Lac Qui Parle, Swift, Chippewa, Kandiyohi, Yellow Medicine, Renville, and Redwood counties.
What You Should Do
Please advise the appropriate officials or fire crews in the field of this Red Flag Warning. Any fires that develop will spread rapidly. Outdoor burning is not recommended.
Expected Conditions
Southerly winds with gusts around 40 to 45 mph are expected ahead of an approaching front, with relative humidity values falling to 25 to 30 percent. On Friday, temperatures are forecast to be in the 80s with relative humidity around 17 percent and west winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph.
Timeline
The first Red Flag Warning is in effect until 9 PM CDT on May 14. A second Red Flag Warning is in effect from 11 AM to 9 PM CDT on May 15.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
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Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,137 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to May 21, 2026.
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