Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Red Flag Warnings in Oklahoma on Jan 24th with a few wildfires

As I was checking the national weather map yesterday (January 24th) on the National Weather Service, I noted that there were Red Flag Warnings in much of Oklahoma and perhaps a portion of western Texas, These maps changes through out the day, and unfortunately I did not think to save an image for you. But I did note that the National Weather Service at Norman, Oklahoma posted this graphic on their Facebook early on January 24th about the Red Flag Warnings.

I wondered if there were any wildfires in Oklahoma yesterday, and I did discover that there were multiple wildfires (grass) yesterday in Oklahoma destroying at least three homes (see this report (with photos, a video and a map from KFOR for more information), at least one helicopter flew in support of the wildland firefighters on the ground. One of the wildfires burned in Edmond in Logan County, where the three houses homes that were destroyed were located, for more information see this report from The Oklahoman. According to a January 25th report from KOCO the fire in Edmond rekindled this morning (January 25th). There is a Facebook for Oklahoma Wildfire Info where I found the the article from KOCO and information about January 24th's Red Flag Warning. Finally the Oklahoma Forestry Services has a Twitter account where I saw some tweets about recent wildfire activity, they reported this morning that temperatures were cooling this morning and the winds had died down meaning less critical fire weather concerns.

As I write this, I am reminded of what may be obvious, that a change in the weather (even in the winter) can lead to wildfire danger. Further, a wildfire of any size can destroy a home. Stay safe everyone.

No comments: