Burned areas and wildfire smoke can be seen in this 3:45 p.m. infrared satellite image from Tuesday. Click to enlarge.
The wildfires that grew to blacken hundreds of thousands of acres continue to grow larger in Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma on Tuesday.
In the map below the red dots represent wildfire heat detected by a satellite at 12:57 p.m. CST March 7, 2017. The white line was the very rough, approximate perimeter we developed from heat detected by satellites on Monday. The fires are still growing on Tuesday, spreading toward the southeast, pushed by strong west and northwest winds gusting at 20 to 40 mph. The relative humidity in the western two-thirds of Kansas has fallen Wednesday to the single digits.
The towns of Protection and Coldwater in Kansas are threatened.
The red dots represent wildfire heat detected by a satellite at 12:57 p.m. CST March 7, 2017. Click to enlarge.Kansas weather data at 2:41 p.m. CST March 7, 2017. The red numbers are the relative humidity while the wind barbs indicate the wind speed and direction. Click to enlarge.At 4:45 p.m. CST on March 7 radar was picking up smoke from the fires southeast of Dodge City, Kansas. Click to enlarge.
There are reports that five civilians, not firefighters, have been killed in wildfires in recent days in Texas and Kansas.
In Gray County, Texas, approximately 60 to 80 miles east of panhandle city of Amarillo, three ranch hands were killed as they were moving cattle out ahead of a fire, according to Judge Richard Peet. In Texas county judges are responsible for suppression of wildfires.
Another person was killed in Hemphill County, Texas near Oklahoma border.
The Kansas Highway Patrol says 39-year-old Corey Holt, of Oklahoma City, jackknifed Monday while trying to back up his tractor-trailer on highway 34 in Clark County due to poor visibility from the fires. He was killed after he got out of his vehicle.
This was not a “fire tornado”, or fire whirl. It was a tornado that moved across a wildland fire.
Shawn Wheat of Topeka TV station WIBW was covering a wildfire in Kansas on March 6 when he had to evacuate along with the firefighters when a “cloud-wrapped” tornado moved into the fire area.
I was live in the field tonight as a tornadic storm approached a fire scene. #kswx pic.twitter.com/7r4yEX2fe8
Above: The red and yellow dots represent heat detected by a satellite in the 24 hours before 11:30 a.m. CST March 7, 2017.
Published at 11:29 a.m. MST March 7, 2017
On Monday a cold front brought very strong winds to the plains of Kansas and the northern portions of Texas and Oklahoma. Gusting in some areas at over 50 mph and accompanied by low relative humidities, any wildfires that were ignited spread very rapidly, and often exceeded the capabilities of firefighters.
The largest fire started east of Beaver, Oklahoma and ran to the northeast into Oklahoma. Ashland, 40 miles away, had to be evacuated. It is not 100 percent clear if the fire in Ashland was the same fire that started in Oklahoma, but it likely was.
After the cold front passed, the southwest wind shifted 90 degrees to come out of the northwest, which converted the right flank of the fire into the head as it turned and ran to the southeast.
The fire burned in the following counties: in Oklahoma, Beaver and Harper; in Kansas, Meade, Comanche, Clark, and possibly Ford. As of 3:16 a.m. CST satellite data, the fire was still very active in some areas.
The map below shows heat detected by a satellite in the 24 hours before 11:30 a.m. CST March 7, 2017. We drew a red-tinted polygon around the heat icons for the fire east of Beaver. The satellite only collects data twice a day at roughly 12-hour intervals. As the fire spreads rapidly through mostly grass with the strong wind, it can cool and not be detected by the next satellite overflight. We don’t know if everything within our red polygon was all one fire, and even if it is there likely are many areas, some large, that did not burn. So with all those disclaimers, the red polygon includes about 600,000 acres.
A fire that started in Oklahoma on Monday spread into Kansas burning hundreds of thousands of acres.
The red polygon we drew around the wildfire east of Laverne, OK encompases about 30,000 acres, but the same disclaimers about the fire east of Beaver also apply here.
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.
