Red Flag Warning Issued for Western and Central North Dakota
This alert is no longer in effect.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 Bismarck has issued a Red Flag Warning for critical fire weather conditions across western and most of central North Dakota from 11 AM to 10 PM CDT today.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Red Flag Warning
- Affected area
- Western and Central North Dakota
- Issued
- May 21, 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 Western and Central North Dakota.
Alert Details
A Red Flag Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service in Bismarck, ND. The alert is in effect from 11 AM CDT / 10 AM MDT this morning to 10 PM CDT / 9 PM MDT this evening.
Affected Areas
The warning covers western and most of central North Dakota, including the James River Valley. Affected counties include Divide, Burke, Renville, Bottineau, Williams, Mountrail, Ward, McHenry, McKenzie, Dunn, Mercer, Oliver, McLean, Sheridan, Golden Valley, Billings, Stark, Morton, Burleigh, Kidder, Slope, Hettinger, Grant, Bowman, Adams, Sioux, Emmons, Logan, La Moure, McIntosh, and Dickey.
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 and avoid any activities that could ignite fires.
Expected Conditions
Southwest winds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts up to 45 mph are expected, shifting to the northwest in the afternoon and evening. Relative humidity values will drop to as low as 15 percent. There is a low chance for isolated showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon and early evening, which could cause stronger erratic wind gusts.
Timeline
The warning is effective from 11 AM CDT today through 10 PM CDT this evening. Critical fire weather conditions are likely again Tuesday, especially across central North Dakota.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
All Weather Alerts →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8
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 (1,388 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to May 21, 2026.
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Common questions about this NWS weather alert.