Firefighters in Kansas and Oklahoma will have to contend with difficult weather conditions for a second day as Red Flag Warnings have been issued for those states as well as portions of Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. The wind will not be as strong as it was on Monday but it will be quite breezy with very low relative humidities. At 10:40 a.m. on Tuesday the relative humidity in many areas of western Kansas had already dropped into the teens.
On Tuesday the wind in Kansas, northwestern Oklahoma, and southern Nebraska will be generally be out of the west during the daylight hours, which should push any uncontained fires and smoke toward the east.
Most of the Red Flag Warnings expire Tuesday evening. The wind in these areas will decrease significantly on Wednesday.
The red numbers represent relative humidity in Kansas at 10:40 a.m. CST, March 7, 2017. The wind barbs point to the direction the wind is from.
The map was current as of 9:30 a.m. MT on Tuesday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
Above: Large wildfires (red) in Kansas as detected by a satellite at about 1 p.m. MST March 6, 2017.
(UPDATED at 5:43 p.m. MST March 6, 2017)
Below is an updated map showing growth of some of the fires in Kansas, especially the one 17 miles southeast of Meade, Kansas that burned from Oklahoma into the state. That one, using very rough satellite data, appears to be more than 130,000 acres.
The red areas represent wildfires in Kansas detected by a satellite at 4:07 p.m. MST March 6, 2017.
There was a report, as yet unconfirmed, that in Kansas a tornado moved over a going fire.
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(Originally published at 4:17 p.m. MST March 6, 2017)
Strong winds along with relative humidities in the teens and twenties are causing problems for firefighters in the western half of Kansas. The passage of a cold front is bringing sustained wind speeds of 30 to 40 mph with maximum gusts in the 40’s and 50’s.
On the map above we identified and very roughly mapped four of the largest fires. The acreages shown are estimates based on satellite detections of heat at about 1 p.m. MST on Monday. One of them has burned from Oklahoma into Kansas.
53,000 acres; 17 miles southeast of Meade, Kansas. It is in Meade and Beaver Counties in Kansas, and Clark County in Oklahoma.
6,500 acres; in Clark County 23 miles east of Meade, Kansas.
7,000 acres; in Lane County Kansas 10 miles southeast of Dighton, Kansas.
4,000 acres; in Rooks County Kansas just southwest of Stockton, Kansas. Residents in part of the city have been ordered to evacuate.
A fire in Logan County in the northeast corner of Colorado has burned 6,000 acres 20 miles northeast of Sterling.
In Kansas at 3:52 p.m. MST. Sustained wind speed on the left and relative humidity on the right.
Before the cold front passed the fires were driven by a southwest wind (see the animated radar map below). As the front passes the wind is shifting 90 degrees to come out of the northwest. This could be a very, VERY dangerous situation for firefighters on the south side of the fires, as the right flank turns into the head of the fire.
Above: This map from GOES-16 shows lightning in clouds associated with the weather system that produced severe thunderstorms and a few tornadoes in East Texas on February 14, 2017. The system can monitor a given area at 500 frames per second, and can distinguish individual lightning strikes within each flash. NOAA/NASA
It also has the first sensor on a satellite specifically designed for monitoring lightning. The Geostationary Lightning Mapper records total lightning (in-cloud, cloud-to-cloud, and cloud-to-ground) activity continuously day and night over the Americas and adjacent ocean regions.
In addition, the baseline imager will view the Earth with 16 different spectral bands (compared to five on current GOES satellites) and it will provide three times more spectral information, four times the spatial resolution, and more than five times faster temporal coverage than the current system.
The National Weather Service has posted Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches for areas in South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. Most of warnings expire Monday evening.
Many of the areas will have sustained winds of at least 20 to 40 mph with gusts exceeding 50 mph. Tuesday’s forecast includes diminished but still strong winds.
The map was current as of 10:05 a.m. MT on Monday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
There are many different types of machines that can reduce vegetation to much smaller pieces or chips. Here is one variation being used in Utah.
Check out these mechanical chippers “bullhogs”, remove pinyon/juniper trees from the CenterCreek & PineCreek projects in Garfield county. pic.twitter.com/JFbLnXlV91
— Utah Fire Info (@UtahWildfire) March 6, 2017
Richfield Field Office nearing the end of a 350 ac. vegetation management project in Pine Creek-Garfield county, south of Antimony, Ut. pic.twitter.com/DaZmE4AeSZ
The National Weather Service has posted Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches for areas in Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas.
There is some confusion about the forecast in Nebraska. While the map shows Red Flag Warnings in at least two areas within the state, other indications are that those Warnings were cancelled.
All areas are expected to have strong winds and low humidities.
The map was current as of 11:20 a.m. MT on Sunday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
