Picture this: You are hiking in a dense forest trying to keep the adventurous spirit in you working. You have been on the move for no more than two hours when you look up and notice something unusual. Clouds cover the sky as far as the eye can see, and not just any clouds, but the familiar dark ones that signal a gloomy downpour is coming. As you curse the weather forecasters that promised glistening sunshine today, your thoughts are rudely interrupted by the splashing of droplets onto your head and clothes. Rain was coming, and you only had a small window of time to decide whether to try outrunning the clouds from where you came, or to hunker down and wait for the weather to pass for a safer journey back.
Assuming you pick the latter choice, having the right skillset will ensure your survival, and one of the most important skills in this case is being able to make a fire under the rain. In the best situations, fire makes you feel comfortable while you relax and enjoy the view of your natural environment. In the worst case, a fire may be the only thing standing between you and hypothermia. Here, we will walk you through the steps to create a fire should you find yourself in an unexpected but dangerous situation such as this.
Step 1: Location?
Before you get started on making the fire itself, it is important to find the best location on where to create it. Due to the inclement weather, your future fire will likely be barraged by rain, wind, and groundwater. A safe location serves to minimize, if not outright eliminate, these factors, and the quicker you can find one, the better. It is extremely challenging to get another fire going in your makeshift camp in the middle of the rain, and you would waste a lot of energy in doing so. Therefore, it is much better to have the best chance in avoiding these problems in the first place.
Your best bet would be under a tree. Evergreen trees especially, as their structure makes them act like a natural umbrella, reducing as much rainfall under them as possible, while their trunks provide adequate shelter against the wind. Be warned, however, that your fire might make the tree catch fire if not properly controlled.
If a tree location is not possible (due to reasons like the location the trees are found being too dangerous, or the trees being too small to provide shelter), you can try scouting out for rock faces.
Their structure means that one side will permanently be safe from wind and rain. However, a big downside is that you will still be helpless to the other sides, and a worst-case scenario is that the rock face ends up being useless, as the directions of the gusts of wind are hitting on your side, instead of the rock face’s side.
Step 2: Fuel for the Fire
Now that you have settled on a location, it is time to find materials for your fire. Namely, tinder, kindling, and fuel.
Tinder is needed to start a fire and is supposed to be easily combustible. Ideally, campers have their own homemade tinder packed already, but if you are not a camper or have no such items prepared, you would need to do some scavenging. Dry bushes make for excellent tinder, but whether or not you will be able to find any depends on your location as well as how long and how strong the rain has been pouring. An alternative would be to find pine needles, which are leaves at the end of pine trees.
They do not absorb a lot of water and can be dried easily. In any case, once you find your tinder, it is best to carry it in a pouch or bag to ensure that it stays dry (or even dries off, in some scenarios).
Kindling is presented in the form of small sticks or twigs needed to start a fire. It is easy to find kindling, even under the rain, provided you know where to look. The tree that you picked as a shelter for your fire, for instance, will more than likely have a couple of dead branches or twigs free for the taking. You can also try looking for dead, fallen, or uprooted trees. Even if the top might be wet from the rain, you are likely to find dry wood inside or even underneath them.
Fuel is what will keep the fire going for a long time and will likely be found in the same spots as where you got your kindling, albeit less common due to its size. A positive, however, is that the fuel does not need to be completely dry. The fire you will make before you toss your fuel in should be more than enough to help dry it out and then some.
Step 3: Make it Burn!
Use your Firestarter to get the fire burning. As it is an essential, this article assumes that you have at least one such item (matchsticks, lighter, flint and steel, etc.) Set your kindling and your fuel next to the fire to ensure that it keeps going.
Important notes:
-If you can, make a fire pit under your chosen shelter. This helps to minimize the chance that your fire spreads outside and becomes uncontrollable, especially if you built your fire under a tree. It also helps stop travelling groundwater from potentially dousing your fire. If the weather is particularly windy, your pit should be deeper to ensure the wind does not put it out prematurely or make it spread.
-Bring more than one Firestarter, to ensure that you have a backup in case your primary one fails.
-Collect as much wood as you can, even more than you think you will need. It is much better to have an overflow of unused wood than to have to scavenge again in the middle of a rainstorm because your fuel ran dangerously low.
-If needed, you can snap your kindling and split your branches with a knife to find dry wood inside.