Herefordshire has been placed under an ‘exceptional fire severity’ warning by the Met Office’s Fire Severity Index..

With temperatures set to reach highs of between 36c and 40c in the county over the coming days, the risk of fires breaking out is extremely high, especially with the ground so dry.

The Met Office’s Fire Severity Index (FSI), is an assessment of how severe a fire could become if one were to start. It is not an assessment of the risk of wildfires occurring. The FSI shows the current day’s fire severity and a forecast of likely fire severity over the coming five days. The index values are from 1 to 5, which represents an increasing degree of fire severity as follows:

  • FSI level 1 = low fire severity
  • FSI level 2 = moderate fire severity
  • FSI level 3 = high fire severity
  • FSI level 4 = very high fire severity
  • FSI level 5 = exceptional fire severity

Please note that the quality of the forecast FSI for 5 days ahead will not be as accurate as the FSI for the current day. This is because there are always uncertainties in weather forecasting several days ahead.

More Details – Fsi – Met Office