With unseasonably dry weather this spring, the East Lansing Fire Department is extending a ban on all fires in East Lansing indefinitely.
"At least until the next rain - maybe even longer than that," East Lansing Fire Marshal Bob Pratt said.
The ban prohibits all fires, including recreational and brush fires, and revokes all burning permits in East Lansing. Initially, the ban began March 24 and was intended to last until Friday, but Pratt extended the ban because of weather conditions that were favorable for fires.
If April showers bring May flowers, there might not be any flowers this year, said Greg Smith, meteorologist at the National Weather Service station in White Lake Township.
Michigan hasn't received a measurable rainfall since April 2, when it received 0.23 inches of precipitation at the Detroit service station, Smith said.
The forecast doesn't call for any rain in the next seven days, meaning the state might have as many as 17 days in the month of April without any precipitation, Smith said.
The National Weather Service released a fire weather planning forecast for Michigan on Tuesday.
With dry weather, low humidity and stiff east-northeast winds, conditions are ripe for fires, Smith said. Those winds, which should die down by Thursday, have helped keep temperatures down, Smith said.
This is causing some extremely dry and potentially dangerous conditions, Pratt said.
Already in East Lansing this week, the fire department has had to extinguish a bush fire near East Akers Hall and a fire near an apartment building caused by a discarded cigarette in landscape mulch, Pratt said.
Anyone who intentionally starts a fire could be charged with a criminal misdemeanor, Pratt said.
According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Web site, it is illegal to have a fire without a permit in Ingham County. On April 8, the department issued a reminder that spring was a wildfire season in Michigan.
Normal rainfall during April is a little more than 3 inches, but the driest April in history was in 1899 when Michigan received just 0.53 inches of precipitation, Smith said.
He does not think the state is in a danger zone yet, however, because melted snow should remain a few feet below the surface for a while.
"If we go two to three more weeks like this, we'll be in trouble," Smith said.
