If you had a look at today’s forecast discussion from the National Weather Service (unless you’re a weather nerd probably not), you may have read a somewhat puzzling term that contained no explanation. The phrase “lightning holdover potential” appears near the bottom of the fire weather part of the discussion, and is referenced to last week’s thunderstorms.

With no clear frame of reference, it would be easy to dismiss the term and move on with your life. Holdover potential is important however, because it describes the ability of fires to metaphorically ambush us. What holdover fires are, according to an article on copernicus.org, are wildfires that initially go undetected for a time after a lightning strike. The lightning strike itself may only initially cause fuels to smolder, which is much harder to spot than open flame. Smoldering may last for several hours to days to weeks and the time between the smoldering and the fire being detected is referred to as the “holdover time”.

In the case of Thursday’s forecast discussion the National Weather Service is referring to enhanced fire weather conditions this Saturday. Specifically, higher winds have the potential to spread smoldering embers from lightning strikes last week, and generate new holdover wildfires. Now you know something you didn’t know before! We’ll continue to monitor fire weather conditions over the coming days, especially with two cold fronts set to move through in the coming days.