Fire Making Your techniques for fires in wet weather

Joined
Oct 28, 2017
Messages
4,464
Now that all of that excitement is over, I actually thought it might be pleasant and informative to have a civilised discussion on this topic. I am sure that many of us have been in wet weather and wanted to get a fire going. Here is how I’ve been successful, and one abject failure. There is nothing ground breaking here from me, just what I have actually experienced!

The big failure was in some woodland on Dartmoor, here in England, in February some years ago. I was with a pal, and the weather was just shocking. Even under tree cover the downpour was torrential. All day we had had snow, hail, but mostly rain, and it did not stop. We had made very poor progress, with much of the lower moorland becoming mire like. Despite having dry tinder and kindling, between us we could not get a fire to light. But, we had a tent, sleeping bags and clothes in dry bags. We slept fine. It was a miserable walk out the next day, however.

On other occasions I’ve been luckier, and better prepared perhaps. My first priority is to get a tarp rigged, quick and dirty on a ridge line between trees, if feasible. I prepare the wood under the tarp. First cutting planks to make a base, then lots of kindling, and as large pieces of bark and as many pieces as I can get. Then I make the tinder, or take it out of my pack, and prepare that on a smaller piece of bark. At the last moment, I place the base planks down for the fire, then quickly build a wickiup type structure with the kindling, with an aperture to place the tinder. Bark covers as much of the outside of the structure as possible. Then I ignite the tinder and place it in the structure.

This has worked for me on quite a few occasions. One of my daughter’s proudest moments was when she did this in the rain, aged 11, with me looking on dewy eyed.

As I say, nothing groundbreaking here, but maybe you guys have other techniques and tips?
 
Excellent post, and a great idea. I've got plenty of stories of my own. I've camped primarily in multiple Southeastern states, but have camped in the midwest where snow covered my whole shelter overnight a few times. Getting a fire going in those conditions is difficult, but possible if you made preparations the night before. I don't enjoy camping in super cold weather because everything becomes harder than it has to be, and it stops being fun at that point. If I HAD to do it, I could, but I wouldn't enjoy it.

Sorry, ahem, firemaking. So, you've more or less outlined the methods I'll use most of the time where I'll find something to elevate the fireprep off the ground. A flattened piece of wood works great, because then you can just set the whole thing into your firepit.

Also, how I make the fire will depend on what the situation is. Nice day out, where plenty of dry wood is around for the taking, I'll use one of the "teepee" or "box frame" methods, with my tinder in the middle of the little setup. Then I'll use a lighter or ferro rod to get the tinder going, then carefully feed the tinder tiny branches until it catches. I'll wait for the teepee/boxframe to get properly going, then start feeding progressively larger-in-diameter pieces into the flames. Pretty simple. Edited to add: it's also a good idea to assess what the area around you looks like before making a fire. Are you in a clearing with low hanging branches that look dried or dead? Probably not a great idea to make a larger fire. Also, digging a small pit to make the fire in isn't the worst idea, since it makes dousing the fire when you're ready to break camp easier.

Now, if it's raining (and in Florida and Georgia) it doesn't matter what time of the year you're in, there's ALWAYS a chance you'll get rained on. So when I reach a campsite, setting up a tarp over the spot I'll make my firering is always first priority. Second is trying to gather up all of the firewood I can find. Branches, and larger chunks if I can. Also, if I can't get the tarp high enough, or plan on having a larger fire, I'll angle the tarp off the to side, so I'm covered, but the fire ring isn't, and will do my tinder prep there, then move it to the fire ring. Usually though, I tend to have a smaller fire, so I'm able to have it more or less under the tarp, if I can get the tarp at least seven to eight feet off the ground.

One thing that other guy had right is that dry wood can be found in the middle of larger dead branches, and I'll use a hatchet (or whatever chopping knife I might have with me) to get at it.

As for firemaking tools, I don't leave the house without at least three methods of firemaking with me. I also keep a backup little kit in the car, just in case. I keep things like lighters, a ferro rod, a sparkwheel, a flint and steel, and tinder of various kinds in these kits. Just useful to have. Also, I thankfully live in a state where good tinder is virtually all around in the woods. Find an oak tree, you'll probably find a good source of fatlighter, which is essentially a big chunk of sap that's stuck to a branch or trunk of some of the harder woods. Cat-tails growing in a stream or pond near you? Pull apart the fluff, there you go. Pine needles work great, and of course plenty of other things. Dried green moss, or kudzu works also. When it's wet, you have to get a little more creative if you're trying to use what you find, and not what you brought with you. One trick that works for me is finding a tree where I can pull some of the bark off the trunk. The underside is usually dry, where it was attached to the tree. Use the back of your knife to scrape a pile of that onto your fireprep board, and there you go. Be ready with some moss, cat'o nine tail fluff, or other such tinder. Then start feeding it VERY small branches, and position some larger pieces as close as you can to the flames so they start drying out. Firemaking in the rain isn't very hard once you get experienced to the point you can set things up quickly. I'm proud of your daughter, especially at her age. The only reason I think it's easy is because I've been doing it for so long. It certainly wasn't easy when I was starting out in my Scouting career, and my Patrol and I had a few cold meals before we got good at it. Hot food and warm feet make powerful motivators. "Don't need a warming fire", disgusting that such an idea was even posted, really.

One tip you can do with a fire is warm your lean-to, or shelter. If you've got a large branch, you can turn it into a stake club. Find four decent sized pieces of sapling, and hammer them into position, and then lay a series of larger logs or sapling lengths in it. The idea is to form a small wall, across from your shelter (or against whichever way the wind reliably blows in that area). The heat from the fire will bounce off that small wall, and reflect back onto your sleeping arrangement/lean-to. That's kept me warm a few times when the night dropped colder than it was supposed to, and I had my summer weight sleeping bag with me.
 
Last edited:
Pretty much what everyone said already. I use fatwood sticks since it's water resistant, works really well. I went camping in Iowa one year and it was a monsoon constantly first couple of days and the fatwood sticks worked really well for getting things going.

Zippo Typhoon Matches wouldn't hurt either, well that is if you're not trying to be a traditionalist.
 
Excellent post, and a great idea. I've got plenty of stories of my own. I've camped primarily in multiple Southeastern states, but have camped in the midwest where snow covered my whole shelter overnight a few times. Getting a fire going in those conditions is difficult, but possible if you made preparations the night before. I don't enjoy camping in super cold weather because everything becomes harder than it has to be, and it stops being fun at that point. If I HAD to do it, I could, but I wouldn't enjoy it.

Sorry, ahem, firemaking. So, you've more or less outlined the methods I'll use most of the time where I'll find something to elevate the fireprep off the ground. A flattened piece of wood works great, because then you can just set the whole thing into your firepit.

Also, how I make the fire will depend on what the situation is. Nice day out, where plenty of dry wood is around for the taking, I'll use one of the "teepee" or "box frame" methods, with my tinder in the middle of the little setup. Then I'll use a lighter or ferro rod to get the tinder going, then carefully feed the tinder tiny branches until it catches. I'll wait for the teepee/boxframe to get properly going, then start feeding progressively larger-in-diameter pieces into the flames. Pretty simple. Edited to add: it's also a good idea to assess what the area around you looks like before making a fire. Are you in a clearing with low hanging branches that look dried or dead? Probably not a great idea to make a larger fire. Also, digging a small pit to make the fire in isn't the worst idea, since it makes dousing the fire when you're ready to break camp easier.

Now, if it's raining (and in Florida and Georgia) it doesn't matter what time of the year you're in, there's ALWAYS a chance you'll get rained on. So when I reach a campsite, setting up a tarp over the spot I'll make my firering is always first priority. Second is trying to gather up all of the firewood I can find. Branches, and larger chunks if I can. Also, if I can't get the tarp high enough, or plan on having a larger fire, I'll angle the tarp off the to side, so I'm covered, but the fire ring isn't, and will do my tinder prep there, then move it to the fire ring. Usually though, I tend to have a smaller fire, so I'm able to have it more or less under the tarp, if I can get the tarp at least seven to eight feet off the ground.

One thing that other guy had right is that dry wood can be found in the middle of larger dead branches, and I'll use a hatchet (or whatever chopping knife I might have with me) to get at it.

As for firemaking tools, I don't leave the house without at least three methods of firemaking with me. I also keep a backup little kit in the car, just in case. I keep things like lighters, a ferro rod, a sparkwheel, a flint and steel, and tinder of various kinds in these kits. Just useful to have. Also, I thankfully live in a state where good tinder is virtually all around in the woods. Find an oak tree, you'll probably find a good source of fatlighter, which is essentially a big chunk of sap that's stuck to a branch or trunk of some of the harder woods. Cat-tails growing in a stream or pond near you? Pull apart the fluff, there you go. Pine needles work great, and of course plenty of other things. Dried green moss, or kudzu works also. When it's wet, you have to get a little more creative if you're trying to use what you find, and not what you brought with you. One trick that works for me is finding a tree where I can pull some of the bark off the trunk. The underside is usually dry, where it was attached to the tree. Use the back of your knife to scrape a pile of that onto your fireprep board, and there you go. Be ready with some moss, cat'o nine tail fluff, or other such tinder. Then start feeding it VERY small branches, and position some larger pieces as close as you can to the flames so they start drying out. Firemaking in the rain isn't very hard once you get experienced to the point you can set things up quickly. I'm proud of your daughter, especially at her age. The only reason I think it's easy is because I've been doing it for so long. It certainly wasn't easy when I was starting out in my Scouting career, and my Patrol and I had a few cold meals before we got good at it. Hot food and warm feet make powerful motivators. "Don't need a warming fire", disgusting that such an idea was even posted, really.

One tip you can do with a fire is warm your lean-to, or shelter. If you've got a large branch, you can turn it into a stake club. Find four decent sized pieces of sapling, and hammer them into position, and then lay a series of larger logs or sapling lengths in it. The idea is to form a small wall, across from your shelter (or against whichever way the wind reliably blows in that area). The heat from the fire will bounce off that small wall, and reflect back onto your sleeping arrangement/lean-to. That's kept me warm a few times when the night dropped colder than it was supposed to, and I had my summer weight sleeping bag with me.
Fantastic post!
 
(huge facepalm) I forgot an essential piece of my firemaking kit: a titanium extendable straw! A small tube for strategically blowing air into coals is a HUGE gamechanger for firemaking. Just Google "titanium extendable fire straw" and you'll get hits on a ton of places that sell them. Man, sorry about that. If I'm car camping, I just carry a length of small diameter PVC pipe.
 
Last September took a friend out for a woods walk. He had never done fire with natural tinders.
I eventually found some mediocre fatwood but the real winner that day imo was cedar bark I gently stripped from the tree.

I placed the bark in my pocket to drive out any remaining moisture during the walk.

Not soaking woods but off and on rain. We did split stuff to get to the dry inside.

"If you can make tea, it's not a survival situtation" said someone smarter than me.
 
(huge facepalm) I forgot an essential piece of my firemaking kit: a titanium extendable straw! A small tube for strategically blowing air into coals is a HUGE gamechanger for firemaking. Just Google "titanium extendable fire straw" and you'll get hits on a ton of places that sell them. Man, sorry about that. If I'm car camping, I just carry a length of small diameter PVC pipe.
I like that idea!
 
I don’t have a lot of advice, other than it’s much easier if you have access to multiple ignition sources and dry media. It’s tough when everything is wet.

A story:

A few years back myself and a few buddies had taken a boat to the north shore of the island. It’s only accessible by boat or helicopter, and pretty awesome. Lots of cliffs, vegetation, rocks, and rivers/ocean.

I had stashed a few smokes in a dry box and put it in my surf shorts. Our mission was to collect limpets along the coastline in the shore break. The coast is basically rocks and then a 2000 ft cliff behind you.

After a long morning, we gathered up to wait for the boat to come pick us up, so we could swim out and get a ride back to the south shore.

While waiting, I remembered I had like 10 cigarettes stashed. I pulled them out, and the guy I was waiting with was stoked. Then we realized we had no lighter. Lol!

We managed to find some driftwood and began rubbing pieces together to try to get an ember. After an hour and a lot of sweat, we managed to get enough heat to fire up a smoke.

It was like we solved world peace. Lots of blisters and pain, but we chain smoked those cigs until the boat came.
 
Excellent post, and a great idea. I've got plenty of stories of my own. I've camped primarily in multiple Southeastern states, but have camped in the midwest where snow covered my whole shelter overnight a few times. Getting a fire going in those conditions is difficult, but possible if you made preparations the night before. I don't enjoy camping in super cold weather because everything becomes harder than it has to be, and it stops being fun at that point. If I HAD to do it, I could, but I wouldn't enjoy it.

Sorry, ahem, firemaking. So, you've more or less outlined the methods I'll use most of the time where I'll find something to elevate the fireprep off the ground. A flattened piece of wood works great, because then you can just set the whole thing into your firepit.

Also, how I make the fire will depend on what the situation is. Nice day out, where plenty of dry wood is around for the taking, I'll use one of the "teepee" or "box frame" methods, with my tinder in the middle of the little setup. Then I'll use a lighter or ferro rod to get the tinder going, then carefully feed the tinder tiny branches until it catches. I'll wait for the teepee/boxframe to get properly going, then start feeding progressively larger-in-diameter pieces into the flames. Pretty simple. Edited to add: it's also a good idea to assess what the area around you looks like before making a fire. Are you in a clearing with low hanging branches that look dried or dead? Probably not a great idea to make a larger fire. Also, digging a small pit to make the fire in isn't the worst idea, since it makes dousing the fire when you're ready to break camp easier.

Now, if it's raining (and in Florida and Georgia) it doesn't matter what time of the year you're in, there's ALWAYS a chance you'll get rained on. So when I reach a campsite, setting up a tarp over the spot I'll make my firering is always first priority. Second is trying to gather up all of the firewood I can find. Branches, and larger chunks if I can. Also, if I can't get the tarp high enough, or plan on having a larger fire, I'll angle the tarp off the to side, so I'm covered, but the fire ring isn't, and will do my tinder prep there, then move it to the fire ring. Usually though, I tend to have a smaller fire, so I'm able to have it more or less under the tarp, if I can get the tarp at least seven to eight feet off the ground.

One thing that other guy had right is that dry wood can be found in the middle of larger dead branches, and I'll use a hatchet (or whatever chopping knife I might have with me) to get at it.

As for firemaking tools, I don't leave the house without at least three methods of firemaking with me. I also keep a backup little kit in the car, just in case. I keep things like lighters, a ferro rod, a sparkwheel, a flint and steel, and tinder of various kinds in these kits. Just useful to have. Also, I thankfully live in a state where good tinder is virtually all around in the woods. Find an oak tree, you'll probably find a good source of fatlighter, which is essentially a big chunk of sap that's stuck to a branch or trunk of some of the harder woods. Cat-tails growing in a stream or pond near you? Pull apart the fluff, there you go. Pine needles work great, and of course plenty of other things. Dried green moss, or kudzu works also. When it's wet, you have to get a little more creative if you're trying to use what you find, and not what you brought with you. One trick that works for me is finding a tree where I can pull some of the bark off the trunk. The underside is usually dry, where it was attached to the tree. Use the back of your knife to scrape a pile of that onto your fireprep board, and there you go. Be ready with some moss, cat'o nine tail fluff, or other such tinder. Then start feeding it VERY small branches, and position some larger pieces as close as you can to the flames so they start drying out. Firemaking in the rain isn't very hard once you get experienced to the point you can set things up quickly. I'm proud of your daughter, especially at her age. The only reason I think it's easy is because I've been doing it for so long. It certainly wasn't easy when I was starting out in my Scouting career, and my Patrol and I had a few cold meals before we got good at it. Hot food and warm feet make powerful motivators. "Don't need a warming fire", disgusting that such an idea was even posted, really.

One tip you can do with a fire is warm your lean-to, or shelter. If you've got a large branch, you can turn it into a stake club. Find four decent sized pieces of sapling, and hammer them into position, and then lay a series of larger logs or sapling lengths in it. The idea is to form a small wall, across from your shelter (or against whichever way the wind reliably blows in that area). The heat from the fire will bounce off that small wall, and reflect back onto your sleeping arrangement/lean-to. That's kept me warm a few times when the night dropped colder than it was supposed to, and I had my summer weight sleeping bag with me.
"Fatlighter" come off pine trees,not oak.
 
"Fatlighter" come off pine trees,not oak.
My experience has also been with coniferous trees producing fatwood/pitchwood/lighter log. Also, blobs of pitch that ooze out of holes made by pine beetles or other injuries to the trunk.

However, I don't know much about deciduous trees, like oak. They do produce a sap and perhaps it too, is flammable?

I'd be interested to know if that were the case.
 
My experience has also been with coniferous trees producing fatwood/pitchwood/lighter log. Also, blobs of pitch that ooze out of holes made by pine beetles or other injuries to the trunk.

However, I don't know much about deciduous trees, like oak. They do produce a sap and perhaps it too, is flammable?

I'd be interested to know if that were the case.

Yes, it is. While it's true that fatlighter can be found on pine trees (I've done it), I've found it on oak trees in my neck of the woods. In any case, the real lesson here is: pay attention to your surroundings. Plenty of stuff that can get a fire going.
 
In my experience, sap off a hardwood is not flammable like sap off pines. Pine sap is used to make turpentine.
A search shows fatwood coming off pine trees,primarily longleaf pines.
 
Yes, it is. While it's true that fatlighter can be found on pine trees (I've done it), I've found it on oak trees in my neck of the woods. In any case, the real lesson here is: pay attention to your surroundings. Plenty of stuff that can get a fire going.
Having paid attention to my surroundings, I have found plenty of fatwood over the years.

I've hunted down fatwood in several Western states, but none of it was from deciduous trees, only conifers (pine, spruce, fir). There are no forests of large hardwoods, like oak, in the Rockies or desert South West for me to pay attention to.

Literature in books, online, plus my own experience have not shown me that non-coniferous trees are a source of a flammable substance, like fatwood or whatever word one might use. However, that does not mean what you write is not so. I certainly don't know all there is about this topic and I am not trying to discount your experience, merely relating my own as I am curious about this topic.

Did you find the oak fatlighter in a root ball of a fallen dead tree? in a stump?
 
Hurrul Hurrul and K kvaughn I've found what I've found, let's move on. Do either of you have experience in making a fire in wet weather? I think we'd all enjoy hearing about your techniques and experience, here in this thread about discussing fire making techniques in the rain. :)
 
Any thoughts about the idea of simply carrying a mini canister of something like zippo fuel to pour over and ensure a good burn for just long enough to catch on? For example Zippo make a little refill keychain thing. Another idea I've played with is a lip balm stick to smear over the kindling to again give just enough time for the fire to catch properly in adverse conditions. Pair either solution with a storm match and it should be very useful. I also like the idea of the UCO Stormproof Sweetfire Strikeable Firestarters as a good bad weather starter. Their Titan Stormproof matches are quite something, I've used them quite a bit in driving rain.
 
Last edited:
Hurrul Hurrul and K kvaughn I've found what I've found, let's move on. Do either of you have experience in making a fire in wet weather? I think we'd all enjoy hearing about your techniques and experience, here in this thread about discussing fire making techniques in the rain. :)
I was genuinely interested in understanding more about this fire starting tinder you mentioned. I have not been to the region of the US your experiences transpired in. We've all found what we've all found, but for me personally, it good to hear about what others have found sometimes, too. Since, I won't be making it out that way East, at least I can possibly try to learn from others something else I can add to my bag of outdoor tools/tricks.

It's a fine line to walk, if posting questions about fire starter in a thread about starting fires is a digression from the theme of the thread. The OP wanted a civilized discussion. I think my questions were inline with a reasonable discussion, as well as being a topic intrinsic to starting a fire, in any environmental conditions. But, if my questions came off as condescending or overly doubtful, I was not intending that to be the case.

My experience starting campfires is long, back since childhood, but starting a fire in a wet ambient environment (damp material with high humidity) has been a very limited exposure. However, having prepared oneself with various skills and/or advantages, like others have mentioned earlier in this thread, is crucial. Also key - having the energy to work hard for perhaps a long while nursing a guttering flame into something sufficiently strong enough to leave for more than a minute.

My example is perhaps more what not to do: On a mountaineering trip in the N.Cascades, I was part of a 12 person group that had been out for 21 days and 17 of those days some form of rain/snow/hail/sleet had appeared. No one was experiencing any prolonged or immediate cold injuries, but a fire was decided on as it was the end of the trip and we were awaiting our pick up at a trail head campground. It was not raining hard that day, but rain was falling as usual.

Unfortunately, like most campgrounds, there was no usable (wet or dry) wood really to be found on the ground or above a certain height on the standing trees in a vicinity around the campground. With 10 people, the task of finding material was easier, but it took a long time to comb the area looking for small material - most of the driest material we found was the very small and lean branches sticking only several inches or less out of the trunk of spruce trees.

Without hatchets or chopping tools, our groups mulit-tools and a spyderco ladybug weren't helpful getting into larger sources of wood, nor where our glacier walking axes - you could pry with them, but little else.

For a fire starting advantage, with our driest material ready and sitting above the wet ground on wettish wood, we used white gas from our backpacking stoves to get things started. It took a long time of feeding small slightly damp wood into this fire and actively fanning the flames to grow the fire. Eventually, enough of a coal bed formed and we could start adding larger pieces to dry and ignite. Even than, group members were still hunting for the small consumable material to keep stoking the fire with as it remained weak for a while, and it never got that big.

While we were prepared to start a fire (lighters, stoves, white gas), but under-prepared for doing so in the extreme conditions like we saw. I think a tarp would have been helpful, but we only had tent flys. We could have configured one to create some shelter for starting the fire, but the fire ring itself was limited in usable anchors to suspend the fly from . A fly could have sheltered wood, to help it dry a little, but eventually someone would have needed it for their tent that wet night. A chopping implement or folding saw would have been great. Fortunately, able bodies and motivation prevailed despite obvious limitations in fire preparedness for wet conditions.

Good thing we were not under any urgent pressure, like needing to cook with it or help someone dry out.
 
Elevate if possible. A couple of birch logs do nicely

Feather stick or shavings using a pencil sharpener in my bag

As others have mentioned, core of standing dead wood, pine sap, ...........

Potassium permanganate works every time

It's always wet in the southeast so I'll take any advantage I can get
 
Outer bark from white,silver or yellow birch burns like gasoline even when wet and is usually easier to find than fatwood, which is found on conifers. Not deciduous trees.
I gather birch bark on my property and use it to light my wood stove. Usually keep a pile in the kindling box
Having built fires for 60+ years in a number of states and countries and conditions, I've found the actual building of the fire prior to lighting it make a huge difference in your success rate.
 
Back
Top