Firefighters in Bradley County are urging residents to stop outdoor burning as extreme drought conditions and an extraordinary rainfall deficit continue to create dangerous fire conditions across the area.
The Bradley County Rural Fire Department issued a blunt warning Wednesday after responding to fire activity in the county, sharing photos showing firefighters working amid heavy smoke and extremely dry vegetation.
“PLEASE STOP BURNING,” the department wrote. “We are in an Extreme drought right now and any fire is Extremely dangerous right now.”
The warning comes as a new U.S. Drought Monitor map shows drought conditions continuing across virtually the entire state. As of the latest update, 96.4 percent of Arkansas is officially in drought, with nearly half of the state — 49.3 percent — classified in D2 Severe Drought. Another 37.1 percent is in D3 Extreme Drought, while 2.3 percent has reached D4 Exceptional Drought, the highest classification on the scale.
Bradley County remains in one of the hardest-hit sections of south Arkansas, with the Warren area in extreme drought. Severe to extreme drought also covers large portions of the surrounding region.
One way to put the severity of the situation into perspective is the rainfall shortage. Drought itself is not measured simply by a certain number of missing inches of rain, but countywide precipitation data based on NOAA information shows just how far behind Bradley County has fallen.
Through Sept. 28, Bradley County had received an estimated 22.14 inches of precipitation during 2026 — only about 53 percent of the amount that would normally have fallen by that point in the year. That puts the county at roughly 19 to 20 inches below normal rainfall for the year to date. The countywide data also ranked 2026 as the driest start to a year in the 76-year period examined.
That deficit helps explain why vegetation across the county can become so susceptible to fire. Dry grass, leaves, brush and timber can ignite easily, and once a fire starts, the lack of moisture can allow it to spread rapidly. Photographs shared by the Bradley County Rural Fire Department Wednesday showed firefighters dealing with those conditions firsthand.
There is some hope for rain over the next 24 to 48 hours, although any rainfall that arrives is unlikely to be enough by itself to erase the drought.
The National Weather Service forecast for Warren early Thursday morning showed a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2 a.m. Friday, with rain chances increasing substantially during the day Friday. The chance of precipitation Friday currently stands at 70 percent, with rainfall amounts generally forecast between one-tenth and one-quarter of an inch, although thunderstorms could produce locally higher amounts. Additional rain chances continue into the weekend.
The National Weather Service in Little Rock is also forecasting a broader period of rainfall across Arkansas over the next several days, although the heaviest totals initially favor western portions of the state. Rain chances are expected to spread farther into central and eastern Arkansas as the weekend approaches.
For Bradley County, however, even an inch or two of rain would represent only a beginning. With the area running roughly 20 inches behind normal precipitation for the year, it will take considerably more than one round of showers to fully reverse the drought. Significant improvement would require repeated periods of meaningful rainfall capable of replenishing soil moisture, streams, ponds and other water sources over time.
Until that happens, local firefighters are asking residents to take the conditions seriously. Something as simple as an outdoor fire that might ordinarily be manageable can become much more dangerous when surrounding vegetation is this dry.
For now, the message from the Bradley County Rural Fire Department could hardly be clearer: please stop burning.
