The fire service has issued its first wildfire warning of the year as parts of the country expect snow this weekend.
Two warnings have been put in place until Saturday, with south-west Scotland having a risk rating of “extreme” and central east Scotland at “very high” risk.
Meanwhile, snow and ice weather warnings will continue to affect vast parts of the country until 6am on Sunday.
The higher risk of wildfires is being caused due to a weather pattern, dominated by low pressure, warm air to the south, cold air to the north and low humidity in the south-west, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said.
A large amount of dead grass and heather left over from last year is expected to dry out quickly due to a combination of frost, low relative humidity, sunshine and wind.
READ MORE: More yellow weather warnings in place for snow and ice across Scotland
If ignited, the dried greenery would act as fuel and see wildfires spread quickly over a wide area.
The fire service has recently launched a new prevention campaign called Care For Your Countryside.
John Harvey, an SFRS station commander, said: “Over the next few days while this wildfire warning is in place, we urge people to act safely and responsibly in the countryside.
“Wildfires have devastating effects on our countryside and are extremely damaging to the environment, wildlife and nearby communities.
“With dry, winter conditions this weekend, wildfires could burn and spread with very high intensity in high-risk areas.
“Therefore, we are asking people to act responsibly when enjoying the outdoors, dispose of cigarettes carefully and please think twice before using anything involving a naked flame.”
READ MORE: Snow expected as Arctic cold snap intensifies
SFRS said many wildfires are started deliberately or are due to careless, reckless or irresponsible behaviour, and the risk is said to peak during early spring.
People who live, work or are visiting rural areas in particular are being urged to exercise the utmost caution to avoid fires breaking out.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel