The Northern Utah Interagency Fire Center in Draper calculates the fire danger ratings on those brown Smokey Bear signs along Utah's highways.

The process is more involved than most drivers realize, Brook Chadwick, fire chief for the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, told The Salt Lake Tribune in a feature first reported Sunday, Oct. 11.

"It's more complex than I think folks would ever think," Chadwick said. "It's not just we wake up and feel like it's high today."

The Draper-based center, known as the NUIFC, is a joint operation of the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the State of Utah Forestry, Fire and State Lands. It coordinates wildfire dispatch across roughly 15 million acres in 14 Utah counties, including Salt Lake County.

Each morning, staffers feed temperature, humidity, wind and plant moisture data into their calculations. They also project fire potential for the next seven days. That window matters because a camper or hunter may pass a sign on the drive up and not see another for days.

Signs display five levels: low, medium, high, very high or extreme. The ratings cover three zones in northern Utah: the West Desert, the Wasatch Mountains and the western Uinta Mountains. A sign at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon should match one at the entrance to Logan Canyon because both fall in the Wasatch zone.

Crews update signs weekly, usually before the weekend, unless conditions shift fast enough to warrant an urgent change. The daily rating goes out to fire departments and ranger offices by text and radio. The NUIFC runs its calculations from roughly May or June through October or November, depending on weather.

Chadwick told the Tribune that some smaller fire departments still display outdated or incorrect ratings. The Forest Service is working to get all departments using the shared data.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel were forecast to soak Utah the same day, with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City upgrading the event to a "major risk" for flooding, flash flooding and strong winds. Rainfall of 2 to 4 inches was expected across much of the state. Most Utah locations average 0.75 to 1.25 inches for the entire month of October, ABC4 reported.

Heavy rain can shift fire danger calculations. Utah recorded more than 1,100 wildfires and nearly 560,000 acres burned as of early September, according to KUTV.

Theft is a recurring problem, too. Chadwick told the Tribune that people regularly steal the Smokey Bear figures from the signs.

Residents can reach the NUIFC through its dispatch page.