The weather finally feels like spring now that May has arrived, but it’s dangerously dry, and regional Forest Bureau officials and meteorologists caution people against using burning barrels until humidity rises and winds calm down.

Blair, Cambria and Indiana counties were at high risk for wildfires Tuesday, said Bob Wetzel, district forester of the Gallitzin Forest District.

The bureau measures the dryness of forest fuel — twigs and grasses. The moisture content of fuel sticks as thick as a pinky finger is below 8 percent.

“It wouldn’t take much to get things going,” Wetzel said.

The bureau conducted a prescribed fire in a state forest in the region Tuesday to burn away old grass so that new wildlife grass can be planted for ground-nesting birds. With the weather as dry as it was Tuesday, fire spread quickly, Wetzel said.

However, in the prescribed fire, precautions to contain the fire are set up ahead of time.

“It’s spring cleanup. People want to pile up brush and burn it, but right now is not the best time to be able to keep that contained,” Wetzel said.

A risk for wildfires and advisory against burning was issued Monday by the National Weather Service in State College because of gusty winds and low humidity. However, relative humidity is set to rise today, National Weather Service Meteorologist Matt Steinbugl said.

The National Weather Service coordinates with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, he said, to determine brush fire risk during spring and fall seasons when there are dry leaves and twigs that serve as fuel for brush fires.

Dry forest conditions Monday and Tuesday, combined with the weather, resulted in an “elevated risk for potential fire spread,” Steinbugl said.

The chance of thunderstorms in the latter half of this week should dampen the forest conditions, Steinbugl said.