If you are tent camping during shoulder season you may be wanting to stay warm around the fire. While camping you may experience some periods of rain. This is where knowing how to setup a tarp safely above your fire can come in handy.
How do you setup a tarp over a fire? You need to make sure the tarp is high enough above the fire. Place your hand above the fire close to the tarp to feel how hot it is. Try to place only the edge or corner of the tarp over the fire so as to allow the smoke to escape more easily. While using a fire treated tarp is best using a standard tarpaulin tarp should be fine. Never leave your fire unattended.
The higher the tarp the less risk of getting burn holes in your tarp. If the rain is falling without a lot of wind then you can place the tarp quite high without any issues. If the wind is blowing rain, than you may want to lower the hight of the tarp a bit. You can also set up the tarp in a different configuration to block the wind.
It is important not to make a huge fire. Keeping the fire a little smaller allows you to lower the tarp down a bit more. The tarp will actually trap some heat making the area feel a little warmer for cooking etc.
Here are some other tarp configurations. Not all these configurations allow for a fire under the tarp however some do or you can have a campfire close by.
The advantages of bringing your fire under a tarp are many. You can most importantly keep a fire going in heavy rain. If you are camping for a longer period of time you will most likely have to deal with days where there will be rain. Being able to stay dry and warm is important for your comfort and survival. You can also arrange tarps in a way that block windy conditions making cooking and living outside more comfortable.
Taking the fire under the tarp arrangement to the next level would be investing in a hot tent. A hot tent is a fire resistant tent constructed of either canvas or nylon. These tents allow you to use a wood stove inside your tent. The advantage of this arrangement is that the heat is trapped by an enclosed area making your fire more efficient.
That being said traveling with a lightweight tent and tarp allows you to go into remote areas. Learning to setup a tarp above a fire is an indispensable skill to have in order to make your camping experience more enjoyable.