Call-outs to the fire service peaked this weekend at 500 in a 24-hour period as a spate of grass fires broke out in bone-dry conditions.

A spokesman for the West Yorkshire Fire Service said the normal number of call-outs in a 24 hour period was 130 or 140.

But the parched ground and warm and sunny temperatures meant a flood of calls to attend fires on open ground. Many of the blazes were not serious but fire crews were kept very busy.

A spokesman said: "They are not in any one particular area, we are just very busy all over the brigade and yesterday afternoon had seven grass fires going on at the same time.

"Some are caused by children messing around, others because of the very warm weather."

The bone-dry conditions were confirmed by Chris Rees, forecaster at the PA Weathercentre.

"There has been no significant rainfall for a month, from this stage in March until about now. That's very dry indeed. It's very unusual. Very often April does have showers, although it's more a phrase than proper climatological fact." Looking ahead to this week, he said: "The west of the country looks like it could get some rain in the next 24 hours but how much you get in West Yorkshire is touch and go."

Elsewhere in West Yorkshire area, two square miles of moorland were alight at Marsden near Huddersfield, and had to be tackled by seven fire crews and a National Trust helicopter dropping water, while fire crews from Wakefield spent the whole of yesterday morning damping down another large-scale grass blaze.