Western Oklahoma on high fire danger alert for remainder of the week

 

Despite the Sunday evening and Monday morning rain showers in parts of Oklahoma, western Oklahoma is expected to be under some very strong wildfire activity for the remainder of the week.

It’s the warning from Gary McManus, State Climatologist at the Oklahoma Mesonet.

“For the western third of the store or so, however, things

are going to be pretty dire,” he wrote in Monday’s Mesonet Ticker.
He said the Southern Plains wind machine will kick up this week and dry things out.
The Oklahoma Forestry Service had the same kind of projection.
“There is strong potential for a very active period of wildfire activity in western Oklahoma this week.”
But the Forestry Service also dormant fuels, or dry grass will create the potential for high-severity wildfires in the Oklahoma Panhandle, northwestern and western Oklahoma.
That’s the kind of warning that got the attention of McManus.
“Yikes! So there will probably be increased fire danger over much of the state, at least “elevated,” but severe to critical values out west through pretty much the rest of the week.”