How Long it Takes for Wood to Dry After Rain?

I was watching my wood getting soaked and started wondering, how long does it take for my wood to dry after rain?

It usually takes no more than a week to dry depending on the climate and size of wood. The only exact way to find out is with a moisture meter. Moisture content will usually be around 30% after rain exposure, which you’d want to get down to at least 15%. Let’s dive into more detail.

How Fast Wood Dries

There are a ton of factors that go into this! Drying wood depends on the wood species, size of wood, climate, and humidity.

If you are in a very dry and windy climate, it can take just up to a day or two to dry all your wood! If you are in a very wet and dark climate, it can take over a week to dry.

To find out when my wood is ready to burn, I use a moisture meter. You must get a high-quality moisture meter so you don’t get bad readings.

You can get my favorite moisture meter here.

I live in a pretty warm and windy area, and it took me only 2 days to get down from 32% to 14% moisture.

For example, lumber with around a 70% moisture content takes about 4 days to get to a 15% moisture content.

How to Dry Wood Faster

• Stack and split your wood correctly. To dry your wood quickly, there are multiple methods. Make sure to stack your wood so that there is a lot of airflow in between each piece and make sure you split your lumber into smaller pieces.
• Use fire if you don’t have time. If you are not able to dry all of your wood, you can always place damp wood next to the dry wood you are burning. This will cause the wet wood to dry extremely fast.
• Warm it up. Putting your wood inside a warm room or next to a fireplace will help it dry faster.

Here are a few more quick ways on how to dry wet firewood quickly.

Why You Need to Make Sure Your Wood Is Dry

If your wood is not dry, it will be extremely hard to burn and use.

It will be very heavy, so heavy that it is almost impossible to carry by hand. If you try to burn it, it will also smell have a heavy smell.

Not only does wet wood weigh a lot, but it is also one of the main culprits of campfire smoke. If you are curious, I wrote an article on the causes of campfire smoke.