Red Flag Warning Issued for Northwest and North Central North Dakota
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on May 16, 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 Bismarck has issued a Red Flag Warning for critical fire weather conditions across six counties in northwest and north central North Dakota from 1 PM to 9 PM CDT today.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Red Flag Warning
- Affected area
- Northwest and North Central North Dakota
- Issued
- May 16, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Bismarck ND
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 Northwest and North Central North Dakota.
Alert Details
A Red Flag Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service in Bismarck ND. The alert is effective from 1 PM CDT this afternoon through 9 PM CDT this evening.
Affected Areas
The warning covers Divide, Williams, Burke, Mountrail, Renville, and Ward Counties in North Dakota, mainly along and north of Highway 2 and along and west of Highway 83.
What You Should Do
A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now or will shortly. Residents should prepare for extreme fire behavior as any fires that ignite will spread rapidly and become difficult to control.
Expected Conditions
Northwest winds are forecast to increase to around 20 mph this afternoon with gusts near 30 mph. Relative humidity is expected to fall to at least 20 percent, but may approach 15 percent in some areas.
Timeline
The warning is in effect from 1 PM CDT May 9, 2026, until 9 PM CDT May 9, 2026.
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 (947 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to May 16, 2026.
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Common questions about this NWS weather alert.