There is not a lot of forested land in Nebraska, so when it burns it’s kind of a big deal. The Cottonwood fire in the northwest corner of the state was reported Sunday morning on a pine ridge about 15 miles northwest of Crawford, possibly started from lightning Friday night. With the wind cranking on Sunday at 20 to 25 mph with gusts in the high 30s, the fire raced about four miles through those valuable pine trees and prairies.
The spot weather forecast for Monday was almost as severe, predicting 15 to 20 mph winds with gusts to 35, along with 91 degrees and 10 percent relative humidity. Knowing it had burned thousands of acres on Sunday, I drove down to the fire on Monday thinking I could photograph some active fire behavior and very busy firefighters.
I was wrong. When I got there at about 3 p.m., there was virtually no wind, the sky was mostly covered by clouds, the humidity was fairly high, and since most of the fire had dozer and grader lines around it, there was not a lot for the firefighters to do other than mop up. But based on Sunday’s fire behavior and the predicted weather for Monday, they had plenty of resources on hand, including two National Guard Blackhawk helicopters with water buckets and firefighters from across much of the state’s panhandle. The estimated size of the fire is 2,500 acres.
(more photos are below)
