Keeping a Fire Pit Going in October Drizzle

October rain in Hocking Hills is rarely a downpour. It's a drizzle that starts at dusk, a mist that hangs in the hollow all evening, a shower that passes through and leaves everything dripping. None of that has to end the fire. A fire built for wet weather — dry wood, a hot coal bed, and a little cover — shrugs off drizzle all night. Here's how.

The two rules of wet-weather fires

First: the wood has to be dry before it goes on. Drizzle on a burning log evaporates instantly; drizzle soaking into a stack for three hours before you light it is the problem. Second: a hot coal bed is the engine. A fire that's built up to a deep bed of glowing hardwood coals will dry and ignite slightly damp wood laid on top of it and will keep burning through light rain. A fire that's just flames on kindling dies the moment the rain hits. Everything below is about protecting the wood and building the coals.

Keep the wood dry before the fire

• Cover the stack. Our deliveries come stacked and covered, but if you've moved wood to the pit, get it under something — the porch, a tarp, the cabin's wood rack cover. Wet-on-the-outside splits take twenty minutes to dry on the fire; wet-through splits take forever. Firewood storage covers the setup.
• Bring the next hour's wood under cover. Keep a small pile on the porch or under the deck and run it out to the pit as needed rather than leaving the evening's supply in the rain.
• Keep kindling and the starter inside. Damp kindling is the reason wet-weather fires fail to start. A dry starter and dry kindling will light in a drizzle; damp ones won't light in sunshine.

Build for the rain

1. Start bigger than usual. In dry weather a starter and a handful of kindling gets you going. In drizzle, use the starter, a generous nest of kindling, and three or four small splits in a teepee or log-cabin stack so the fire builds heat fast before the rain can win. How to build a fire covers the stack shapes.
2. Feed it hardwood early and often for the first thirty minutes. The goal is a deep coal bed. Oak and hickory make dense coals; once you have a glowing layer two or three inches deep, the fire will hold through light rain.
3. Lay damp splits on top to dry. Bark-side up, on the coals, at the edge of the flame. They'll steam for a few minutes and then catch. Don't smother the coals with a wet pile; one or two at a time.
4. Keep it compact. A tall, loose fire loses heat to the rain; a low, dense fire keeps it. This is also the safer October fire (under three feet across, two high).

A little cover goes a long way

You're not building a roof over the fire — anything flammable above a fire is a bad idea, and a tarp over a pit is how tarps catch fire. But a few things help. If the pit has a spark screen, use it: it sheds some of the drizzle and keeps sparks in. Sit on the upwind side so the smoke and the rain both go the other way. A patio umbrella well back from the pit covers the chairs, not the fire, and that's the right arrangement. And if the cabin has a covered fire feature — some have a pit under a pavilion or a roofed outdoor fireplace — that's the night to use it.

What drizzle does to smoke

Damp air holds smoke close to the ground, and a wet-weather fire smokes more than a dry one. Burn only well-seasoned hardwood — damp or green wood in the rain is a smoke machine that drifts into the neighbor's hollow and hangs there. Burning wet firewood explains why it's miserable; seasoned vs. green explains how to tell the difference by sound and weight.

When to call it

Steady rain that puddles the pit. Wind with the rain. A group that's cold and not having fun. Any of those and the answer is the cabin's indoor fireplace, which is the better October evening anyway when the weather's bad. The rainy-weekend fireplace guide covers the inside version. The wood's the same; bring it in from the porch pile.

Putting a wet fire out

Rain doesn't put a fire out; it puts the flames out and leaves the coals. Water, stir, water, same as always, until it's cold to the back of your hand. A coal bed that survived three hours of drizzle is exactly the kind that's still alive at 4 a.m. under the ashes.