I heard a story about calling when doing a burn.
It was winter and had been dry for a spell.  (note, the guy was unaware there was a no burn order, he was just being cautious)   The guy had a pile of brush he'd been waiting to burn and when it started to snow he thought it would be a good time to light the pile.  After the snow had covered the pile of brush and probably 5 to 7 inches had accumulated on everything he lit the pile and called to let the authorities know he was burning.  The person answering told him that he couldn't burn anything because there was a no burn order.  When he said but there's 8 inches of snow on the ground and it's still snowing the person on the other end said, yes but it's dry underneath.