High fire danger is in place across the Southwest on Tuesday, thanks to a combination of exceptionally high temperatures, low relative humidity and gusty winds.

Red flag warnings are in place across much of the Southwest for Tuesday due to the anticipated increased fire danger, and the warnings cover most of Arizona and New Mexico, along with parts of Colorado, Utah, California, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma.

It’s not just in the red flag warned areas where increased fire danger is in place on Tuesday, either. The Storm Prediction Center’s (SPC) fire weather outlook encompasses much of the Southwest, again, including areas that aren’t under red flag warnings.

That means fire weather precautions should be widely taken across the Southwest U.S. early this week, including burn bans, properly disposing of cigarette butts, and generally avoiding anything with a spark outdoors.

That threat will continue into Wednesday.

Of course, it’s already been an active fire season across the Southwest. That’s likely in large part due to the growing drought across the Four Corners, and specifically in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. There, an extreme drought, or the second-highest level of drought on the official drought monitor’s scale, is in place.

Dry soil conditions coupled with shorter-term weather factors are combining to increase the fire danger across the area.

Unfortunately, the fire danger is likely far from over across the Southwest this week. In Phoenix, temperatures are set to soar well over 100 degrees by Wednesday and Thursday. While that’s typical for this time of the year, the mercury could top 110 degrees by the Fourth of July weekend, likely boosting fire danger for the upcoming weekend.

Stay with WeatherNation for the latest on the fire danger and the high heat across the Southwest.