Damp, cold conditions are not conducive to fire-lighting. The same environmental factors that promote heat loss and hypothermia also work against the successful establishment of a fire. There is a certain irony in this: the more you need a fire, the harder it can be to light one. Among all conditions encountered in the outdoors, damp cold is often the most challenging for fire-making.

By way of contrast, in very cold conditions, below about minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit), such as those found in the boreal forests of Scandinavia or northern North America in mid-winter, lighting a fire can sometimes be comparatively straightforward.

In the coldest forests in winter, as long as you don’t select wood with water frozen into it, there is little moisture around to impede ignition. At these low temperatures, the air is literally freeze-dried, and while the humidity can still be nominally relatively high, the absolute amount of moisture in the air is low.

Very low temperatures, of course, do handicap the establishment of a fire to an extent, as you are warming everything up to a fixed ignition temperature from a lower starting temperature. Still, we can easily mitigate some of the effects.

The situation is quite different in temperate regions during winter. In Britain, much of northwestern Europe, the Pacific Northwest of North America, and other areas with similar climates, winter cold is often accompanied by high humidity, precipitation, or both. Winter temperatures more commonly hover around freezing, producing a damp, penetrating cold. These same conditions also place greater demands on fire-lighting, as moisture affects fuel, tinder, and the ground on which the fire is built.

Even in the coldest winter forests, moisture can still become an issue once a fire is lit. Heat from a fire melts snow, ice, and frozen ground in the immediate vicinity, releasing water and creating a locally damp environment. This latent moisture underscores the need for sound tactics that account not only for ignition but also for sustaining a fire as it develops.

Overall, cold and damp conditions are among the most exacting conditions for lighting a fire. In such situations, attention to detail and thorough preparation become especially important. The following tips and tactics, drawn from experience, sometimes hard-won, will help you establish and benefit from a fire during the cold, damp months of the year, whenever you encounter them.

The Basics are the Basics

Regardless of the conditions, your fire-lighting efforts should always be guided by the foundational principles that have long been proven to stand you in good stead.

Even if you are in real need of fire as soon as possible, don’t be tempted to cut corners. Proper preparation of materials is the ethos of all consistently successful fire-makers.

Further, pre-position yourself for success by regularly training in techniques and practices you intend to rely on when conditions are harsh. Get into good habits in the good times, and they will be part of your practice when things are more marginal.

The fundamental “rules” matter most in marginal conditions, and under pressure, your performance always drops to the level of your training.

You should always select dead, standing and dry wood for your fuel. When setting your fire, you should always first create a platform of dead, dry wood. This platform raises your initial fire from the cold, damp ground, adds fuel to the heart of the fire and allows good oxygen flow into the base of the flames. Collect plenty of kindling. It should be a bundle, not a handful, particularly in winter.

Keep your sticks long so you can create a good, open-V-shaped lay of kindling and manipulate the first flames. Don’t just have your kindling prepared. Also, prepare the subsequent stages. Have the following stages of fuel ready to go, broadly graded – pencil thickness, then little-finger thickness, then index-finger to thumb thickness and so on.

Adding fuel to a new fire is like working up through the gears in a car’s gearbox. Start in first, accelerate and change up to second, then third, fourth. As momentum builds, you shift up. Similarly, with your fire, when flames come through the kindling, put on the pencil-thickness fuel; then, when the momentum builds, and flames come through the second grade of fuel, put on the third, then the fourth. Thus, you build a fire.

If it’s raining, then shelter the initial stages of the fire. You can, of course, erect a tarp. More on this below. If you have nothing else, use a rucksack liner, a plastic bag or even a jacket. Yes, you will get a little wet, particularly on your back, but it’s better to ensure a big blaze. If you are on your own, suspend the bag or jacket with a few sticks. If you have a companion, they can hold the rain protection over the area you are working.

This shelter will protect the initial ignition and the first small flames. As the momentum builds, the fire’s power will repel the rain. Make sure you put at least double the normal amount of kindling on the fire when it’s exposed to direct rain.

If you can’t find decent dry secondary and tertiary fuel to follow on from the primary kindling, then split larger wood to access dry fuel inside. Again, it should be dead, dry and standing. By standing, I mean upright. Gravity acts at right angles to the ground. The more horizontal a piece of wood, the more gravity will tend to pull water into the wood. Vertical dead wood will have relatively little water penetration.

The outside of even vertical dead wood can be a little wet, plus the inner bark can be somewhat absorbent of moisture. The initial few millimetres of wood can be slightly damp if moisture is trapped beneath the bark. If this is the case, then remove the wet bark and damp wood with your knife. Under no circumstances does it help to have a damp layer of wood attached to the dry fuel you are seeking. So get rid of it.

Good Quality Kindling is Critical

You can generalise fire-making into two broad stages. The first is creating a flame. The second is taking the flame to fire. Critical in the second stage is your kindling. A small handful of damp twigs from the forest floor won’t provide the desired results. Yet this is usually the first resort of the inexperienced.

I can’t overemphasise the importance of quality kindling in establishing a fire in cold, damp conditions. It is the bridge between the fragile initial flames and an established, robust fire. If your bridge is weak, it may collapse.

So, where should you collect your kindling from? Not off the ground for starters. Instead, you should be searching above the ground – dead twigs still attached to the tree, and detached dead twigs hung up amongst other twigs and branches.

Some tree species yield more suitably-sized twigs than others. Birches are particularly productive. Not only do they produce matchstick-thin twigs, but the oils in the bark also make this naturally fine kindling both water-resistant and impressively flammable. I’ve also found medium-sized beech trees a good source of fine, hung-up kindling.

Many needled species of tree are ready sources of kindling, spruces and hemlocks in particular. The lower reaches of small to medium-sized trees often harbour many small dead twigs still attached to the tree. Because of the shape of the tree above, combined with the density of foliage the live branches carry, the dead twigs lower down are usually remarkably sheltered from precipitation. Thus, they are generally really quite dry.

With any potential kindling, you should expect a clean snap or click when breaking sample twigs to confirm they are dead and dry. Any twigs that take effort to remove from the tree, needing to be twisted around multiple times or to be severed by a cutting tool, are likely not suitable.

And what if you can’t find any kindling just hanging around? Well, you can make some.

Feathersticks Really Show Their Worth

If you can’t harvest dead, dry fine kindling directly from the woods, then you can produce fine material using a sharp cutting tool. Good feathersticks will form both the initial kindling and the next size of fuel up, both in one deftly made fire-lighting unit. The intention is for the whole thing to eventually catch light in one package, starting with just a small flame.

Poor feathersticks will see the feathers light, but the stick not taken by the flames. In this situation, unless luck is on your side, you’ll end up with some charred sticks and no fire. The key to success with feathersticks is for the stick component of your feathersticks to have thin necks so that the feathery curls light from the sticks. That is, you must carve the stick down to a thickness the same as the size of a thin splint you might add as your next size of fuel up from the actual curls.

In dry conditions, you may only need two good feathersticks plus some splints to establish a fire. In cold, somewhat damp conditions, you will likely need four good feathersticks plus more splints; in very wet, rainy cold conditions or when your life depends upon it, I recommend six very good feathersticks plus as many splints as you can muster. As with any firelighting, the key is preparation. Make good feathersticks, keep them dry, and prepare plenty of fuel of all the sizes you need. Then, put down a good platform of split wood.

If you are finding this article helpful and want to develop greater confidence in taking a small, fragile flame through to a stable, established fire, you will find my Fire Essentials: Mini Masterclass useful. This short online course focuses on mastering the critical transition from ignition to sustained fire. It builds on the fundamentals discussed in this article, but explores them in greater depth. You can find full details of the course here.

Using Fire-Lighters in Damp, Cold Conditions

In damp, cold conditions, even well-chosen kindling can require more heat energy to ignite than it would in dry weather. While feathersticks made from genuinely dry wood will often carry a fire on their own, this is not always the case with small-stick fires when the exterior of otherwise sound kindling has absorbed moisture.

After prolonged rain, sleet, or thawing snow, it can be challenging to find small sticks that are dry enough on the outside to ignite readily with a single match or spark, even when you are looking in the best places: up off the ground, among hung-up twigs, or at the bases of dense conifers such as spruce.

In these circumstances, the judicious use of firelighters can make a significant difference. What you are looking for are materials that are both relatively impervious to moisture and high in energy, providing sustained heat long enough to dry and ignite slightly damp kindling.

Natural Fire-Lighters

Among natural materials, birch bark and fatwood are by far the most reliable fire-lighters in damp, cold conditions.

Birch bark contains oils that make it naturally water-resistant and highly flammable. Even when the outer surface is wet, it wipes dry easily. You can light strips of bark with a match or lighter. Thin scrapings from the surface of the bark can be ignited with a ferro rod. Once burning, birch bark produces a hot, sustained flame. You can use this heat to drive moisture from the exterior of small sticks during the critical early stages of establishing an outdoor fire.

Fatwood, harvested from resin-rich sections of pine and related species, is similarly moisture-resistant and exceptionally energy-dense. You can light shavings of fatwood with sparks from a ferro rod. Otherwise, thin splints of fatwood are easily ignited with a match or lighter. In cold, damp conditions, fatwood can provide the added heat energy your kindling needs to get going.

Both of these materials integrate well with the small stick fire-lighting approach described above. They will bridge the gap between an initial small flame and a burning bundle of kindling, which can be tricky in cold, damp conditions.

Manufactured Fire-Lighters

There is also a strong case for carrying a judicious quantity of manufactured firelighters in damp, cold environments.

Here, I have in mind materials such as cotton wool balls impregnated with petroleum jelly, BBQ fire-lighters, or commercial products such as WetFire, or tinder card.

Each of these is compact, lightweight, and largely unaffected by moisture. Yet, due to these materials’ respective flammable chemical constituents, they will provide sustained heat that can serve as a reliable “get out of jail free card” in challenging conditions.

As with natural firelighters, we should not see these as shortcuts or substitutes for proper preparation. Instead, when the odds are stacked against you, these firelighting materials extend your margin for success. Carrying one or two reliable fire-lighters is a sensible precaution, especially when you may need a fire for warmth or safety.

These materials – both natural and manufactured – are particularly effective when igniting small-stick fires in cold, damp conditions. Here, the goal is not simply to create a brief flame, but to deliver enough heat energy to dry and ignite the damp exterior of otherwise dry kindling. Used correctly, they buy you time, allowing the fundamentals of fire-building to do their work.

Learn more about these materials and more here.

Is Friction Fire Unrealistic in the Damp, Cold Months?

Bow-drill or even hand-drill is not unrealistic, but the more you have practised good material selection and honed your technique in the more clement months of the year, the more certain it will be that you will achieve success. If you are keen to develop year-round bow-drill skills, continue to practise in the autumn and winter. Use the species of wood you find most reliable in the summer, and keep using this as conditions become colder and damper. Until you are confident you can light a fire by friction in cold, damp conditions, the time to experiment with new materials is in the summer. Stick with the materials you know and trust as you extend your skills into the winter.

The basic principles of bow drill in damp, cold conditions are the same as any other time of year, but there are a couple of small, specific tips you might find helpful.

First, be absolutely fastidious about not putting your drill down on the ground when you are not using it. Keep it in a warm pocket until you need to use it. Note that because you are warming up the wood from a lower starting temperature, creating an ember may take longer than it usually does in warmer conditions. A layer of cold, humid air, close to damp, cold ground, can be enough to quash an ember. As always, lift the ember up and away from the damp ground as soon as you can.

Second, your tinder bundle should be perfect. It should be dry and as well-prepared as possible. Again, you can sometimes get away with being slapdash in hot, dry conditions. Not so in cold, damp conditions. Keep your bundle warm in the inside pocket of a jacket until you need to use it. The temperature difference between keeping the bundle at 20-30 degrees above freezing within your clothing and having it at ambient temperature around freezing makes a noticeable difference. Then, of course, make sure you have plenty of well-prepared kindling and secondary fuel as described above.

Some General Advice For Fires in Cold, Damp Conditions

Regardless of how you might achieve flame, whether it be a bow drill with, say, alder wood, to create an ember, blown into flame using a bundle of honeysuckle bark, or your trusty ferro rod dropping sparks onto some scraped-up birch bark, whether it be flint-and-steel onto amadou, then blown into flame using the inner bark of oak, or just your favourite brand of matches, and regardless of the kindling you are using, there are some general considerations for the colder, damper months of the year you should pay some attention to.

You need to avoid exposed, windy places for your fire. Not only will such a location make your fire-lighting efforts harder, but it will also be bitterly cold, even with a fire. Drop downhill a little or move around the contour to find a position less exposed to the wind. Or it may be a case of pushing a little further into the woods, away from the edge, exposed to the prevailing wind, to reduce the effect of the cold wind on both you and your fire.

A more subtle consideration is to avoid localised low points in the terrain. This consideration doesn’t mean only avoiding valley bottoms. In hollows and depressions, the ground will likely be more damp as water accumulates and persists there. Also, cold air is denser than warm air, so it sinks into the lowest points in the local terrain. So, dips and depressions in the land tend to be cold and damp. Avoid these for your fire-lighting efforts.

If the driest ground you can find is still sodden, then build a double platform under your fire lay. First, scrape away wet leaves and the like as you would normally. Then, place down a platform as you usually do. This platform can be dead, standing sticks of about thumb thickness, or split from dead, standing wood of larger diameter, such as you might use with feathersticks. Then take a second set of sticks and lay them at right angles to the first, creating a double platform that raises your initial tinder and kindling further away from the wet ground. This double-thickness platform helps reduce the effects of moisture evaporating from the ground into the initial stages of your fire, while providing more dry fuel into the heart of your fire as it establishes.

Consider erecting a tarp directly over your fire site. Do this before you light your fire; otherwise, you risk melting your tarp, particularly if you are setting it up on your own. If it is raining or snowing, this will protect the initial stages of your fire from the dampening effects of precipitation falling directly on it. Even once you have established your fire, protecting it from rain or snow will allow your fire to burn efficiently, and you will need less fuel for a given amount of heat. There is also another, highly beneficial, effect of having a tarp over a fire. You achieve a convection current. Warm air rises from the fire, reaches the tarp and is prevented from rising further. It cools a little, then descends as more warm air rises to displace it. Thus, you create a pocket of warmth under the tarp, which would not be there otherwise. When the falling snow is wet, the combined benefits of having a tarp over a fire make a huge difference.

Lighting Fires in Snowy Conditions

What if there is snow on the ground before I come to light my fire? Well, you have two options. You can either light your fire directly on top of the snow or first clear the snow away, then place it directly on the ground as per usual. The choice depends on several factors.

The primary thing to understand is that a fire directly on top of snow will quite quickly start to melt the snow beneath it, then sink downwards into it. Whether this is a problem depends on how long you intend to use the fire and, to some extent, how deep the snow is. It’s pretty common to see families in Norway, for example, out for a day’s skiing on prepared trails through the forest, to build a lunch fire directly on top of the snow. They roast some pre-cooked sausage and keep themselves warm while standing around. It’s quick, efficient and does not require shifting any snow. You can extend the time before a fire sinks by building a larger platform underneath it. The thicker the platform, the better it protects the snow from the heat radiating from the bottom of the fire.

If you are going to hang around in that place for any length of time, however, it is generally best to remove the snow from the ground first, then set your fire. If you just dig a hole for the fire, though, your fire will be down a pit, and you will be on top of the snow, not getting much, if any, warming benefit from it. So, you’ll need to clear an area large enough for both you and the fire. You will then be down at the same level as the fire, on solid ground. Remove as much snow as you possibly can from the ground.

If the ground is frozen, it likely won’t seem to contain as much moisture as it actually does. As soon as it warms up, water in the soil will start melting, and the moisture will be more apparent. The bottom line is you should still build a decent platform of dry wood on which to set your fire. A double platform, as described above, is often prudent. You don’t want the heat of the initial stages of your fire melting and evaporating moisture from the ground, which can significantly hinder its ability to get going.

Summary – Small Details Are Important

While some of the above details may seem small, it is in marginal conditions that attention to detail makes the most difference. In cold, damp conditions, you have less margin for success than in hot, dry conditions. In such circumstances, anyone can light a fire with little effort. Indeed, in the driest conditions, the concern is that any naked flame in the bush might spark a blaze that quickly gets out of control.

In cold, damp conditions, however, the challenge can be to get anything to light at all, even though you want it to. Moreover, in cold, damp conditions, the value of a fire can go beyond want into the realm of need. The irony is that the more you need a fire, the harder it is to create one. The above tips and advice, based on my own experience, will help you succeed the next time you really need a fire.

If you liked this article, check out the following…

How To Light A Campfire With One Match

How To Make Fantastic Feathersticks

PK Podcast 037: Dan Hume On His Quest For Traditional Fire Skills

Canoeing The Spey With Kevin, Ray & Justine part 2 – A Few Campfire Tricks

Northern Forest Fire-lighting Fundamentals: Pulling It All Together