Wildfire in Southern Lake, Minnesota

The Stewart Trail Fire began on Friday, May 15th around 2PM local time near Stewart Trail off County Highway 3 just north of Minnesota Highway 61 in Two Harbors. Very dry and windy conditions were in place with westerly winds gusting to 30 to 40 mph during the early afternoon with relative humidity values falling below 30%, creating dangerous fire weather conditions across the region. The fire was started by a downed power line from the winds and quickly spread to Highway 61 and then up the North Shore to near Castle Danger. Within an hour of the fire starting, structures were being impacted along Highway 61 and the fire was torching in the trees with flames 50 to 60 feet in length in addition to spotting. Highway 61 was quickly closed and evacuations began. Favorable weather conditions, including cooler temperatures, higher humidity, and rainfall, aided firefighters over the weekend allowing the fire to be contained by late afternoon on Monday the 18th. Over 30 structures, including homes and cabins, were destroyed by the fire. The fire reached a maximum size of 375 acres.

The month of April ended with well above normal precipitation but that quickly transitioned to very dry conditions in May with rainfall amounts only around 5-20% of normal over the first half of the month. Some locations in the Brainerd Lakes area to near Grand Rapids received little, if any precipitation during this time. With green up yet to occur, fuels quickly dried out across the region. May 15th saw a deep low pressure system pass by well to the north setting up westerly to southwesterly winds gusting to 30 to 40 mph the 15th and 16th with very dry conditions lead to Red Flag Warnings across the Northland. Multiple fires began over those two days with two fires, the Flanders Fire and the Stewart Trail Fire becoming quite large and leading to evacuations. The fires spread quickly in those conditions and outside resources were called in to fight the fires. The Flanders Fire reached 1,685 acres in size and was contained on the afternoon of the 20th. The Stewart Trail fire near Two Harbors reached 375 acres in size and destroyed over 30 structures, including homes and cabins along Lake Superior.