A lack of rain coupled with extreme dry conditions has forced Warren County and Vicksburg officials to issue county and citywide burn bans.

The National Weather Service Office in Jackson has also issued a fire danger statement for Warren and other surrounding counties.

Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said the countywide burn ban issued Thursday extends through until Oct. 31. Fire Chief Charles Atkins said the city’s ban issued Wednesday extends through Nov. 1, “And then we’ll take a look at and see if we need to extend it. The grass is drying up and the breezes are going to be coming in from the Gulf. The state Forestry Commission has fought 259 wildfires that have burned 2,300 acres. We are getting into the (grass fire) season.”

According to records at the city’s water treatment plant at Haining Road, the last measurable rainfall in Vicksburg was 0.12 inches Sept. 19.

Meteorologist  Nicholas Fenner with the National Weather Service Office in Jackson said the cause for the dry conditions is a high pressure system across the region, bringing warmer, drier weather with humidity lower than normal, and while vegetation tends to dry out in the fall, he said, but grass is already drying. “With that being the case, grasses and fuels and vegetation around the area are susceptible to  burning right now,” he said.

“That ridge (of high pressure) has been real persistent over the summer and carrying into the fall,” he said. “We’re expecting a cold front to come through Friday night into Saturday, and some additional dry air being that,” he said. “We’re not seeing any good chance of rain into the next week.”