Persistent dry conditions cause wildfires in southwest, worry in Central Plains and Rockies
The devastating wildfires in the southwest U.S. have everyone on edge as dry conditions persist in a wide swath of the country.
In a story written by Ruth Weichmann, associate editor for our sister publication Tri-State Livestock News, the National Interagency Fire Center indicates that the state of Kansas, much of Texas, and parts of Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming are at risk for “above-normal” significant wildfire potential. The U.S. Drought Monitor map shows “abnormally dry” to “extreme drought” areas growing across Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas, with pockets of “exceptional drought” in Texas and Colorado. Continued dry and windy conditions and low relative humidity are keeping the fire danger high. As of Thursday, Feb. 19, the National Weather Service has a Red Flag Warning in effect for areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado.
To make matter worse, The Fence Post freelancer Amy Hadachek, talked with weather forecasters and climatologist who are predicting a continued trend of warmer than normal temperatures and a slightly increased likelihood of near or slightly below-normal precipitation for the Central Plains and the Central Rockies this spring.
It’s at times like this when the farm and ranch communities come together to help each other out. I’m sure there are already shipments of livestock feed fencing supplies headed south.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the farmers and ranchers impacted by the wildfires and we will definitely be praying for rain.
Whenever I read stories about drought my thoughts go back to the 1980s, when North Dakota was suffering through a drought. My dad had 40-head of sheep and after the well dried up we had to haul water in. Eventually, he had to cull half the herd because the added expense of water and feed was too much. Luckily, my mother’s job as a registered nurse kept us in the sheep business until it finally started to rain.
We were fortunate in that we didn’t have to fight wildfires during that period but we were always on alert because it would have only taken a small spark to ignite a fire.
In the meantime, the the five wildfires that started on Tuesday in western Oklahoma had burned 300,000 acres as of Thursday. The largest fire, the Ranger Road Fire had burned more than 283,000 acres and was only 15 percent contained. That fire started in Beaver County, Oklahoma and spread to Clark County, Kansas.
The Stevens Fire that started in Texas County and spread into Kansas has burned 12,428 acres and as of Thursday was 50 percent contained.
The Side Road Fire also started in Texas County burning 3,680 acres is 60 percent contained and the 43 Fire burned 2,200 acres in Woodward County, Oklahoma and is 30 percent contained, according to the Oklahoma Forestry Service.
In Texas, the Lavender Fire burned 12,000 acres northwest of Amarillo and was only 20 percent contained on Tuesday.
On Thursday, Cheyenne got its first decent snow all winter but it’s going to take a lot more to make up the deficit from this warmer and drier than normal winter weather.
