Red Flag Fire Warning,9-24, W, N, C OK

11 years ago

The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Fire Warning for many counties in northern, western and central Oklahoma for Monday, 9/24/2012. These counties are highlighted in pink on the county map at the bottom of the linked page.

The Red Flag Fire Warning is in effect from noon through 8 p.m.

Some counties remain under a Fire Weather Watch and folks in those counties should keep an eye on their weather. There's still a chance their watch could be changed to a warning if the conditions so warrant. The Fire Weather Watch counties are highlighted in light pink on the map at the bottom of the linked page.

Remember that fires which do start on Monday will tend to exhibit extreme fire behavior, which will include very rapid, wind-driven moment when the wind is gusting into the 30s.

You can click on any county on the map below to see that county's forecast page. To read the text of the applicable watch or warning, click on the link on the county page.

Tomorrow any young and tender vegetation in the warning area will need extra moisture to help them handle the very dry and windy conditions.

If a large wildfire develops in your area, tune in to local media for evacuation news and be sure the 'alert' feature on your all-hazards/weather radio is set to sound. When a fire evacuation is necessary, the NWS will sound the alert feature to announce the fire evacuation warning if they are asked to do so by the local emergency management officials.

I hope tomorrow is a nice, quiet day, but y'all know what it sometimes is like on Red Flag Days----not so quiet.

Finally, given that wind gusts could reach 40 mph in some areas, if I was a gardener with fall and winter garden plants still in flats or in other containers, I would move them to the most sheltered location possible to protect them from the hot, gusty wind.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: NWS-Norman Weather Office Webpage

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Comments (4)

chickencoupe
11 years ago
[Curses]
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
11 years ago
Bon, I am shocked that you would curse. Simply shocked. : ) OK, maybe not that shocked. The weather here does that to a person.

I am afraid this is the first of many dangerous fire weather days we'll have this fall and winter. Everything is too dry, humidity in general is dropping pretty low in the driest areas in the afternoons, and the wind is getting to be a little bit rowdy.

Tomorrow has the potential to be pretty serious, in terms of fire weather, as the windiness is expected to persist.

In our county, if the forecast doesn't change, we'll actually have worse winds tomorrow than today.

I've been in the kitchen cooking for a couple of hours in case I need to feed firefighters today or tomorrow.

I'm headed outside now to carefully position a few flats of cool-season seedlings so the wind won't beat up on them too badly, and then I am going to put the sprinklers and soaker hoses out on the south and west areas around the house and garage. Yesterday I watered the north and east.

Oklahoma's normal fire season generally doesn't start until winter after repeated frosts and freezes have driven much of the vegetation into dormancy. All the summer and autumn fires we've had this year are just a 'bonus', and I an saying that sarcastically because it is not a welcome bonus.

Dawn
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chickencoupe
11 years ago
At this point I'll be happy to see some weeds spring back to life in the sandy portions of my yard. **sigh

I know how ya feel.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
11 years ago
I watered yesterday and today to try to bring back some green, but we're desperately dry here and I doubt the small amount of watering that I did will make a difference. I do think the grass in the areas I watered is not as crunchy as it was before I watered, but it is too soon to say if the grass will green up any. It's pretty dull tan and brown. I have plenty of weeds in the veggie garden since it has been receiving adequate water. I need to weed, but it is too danged hot....97 degrees today, and I am just sick, sick, sick of the heat. If I wake up early enough tomorrow, I'll try to get out to the garden and weed in the early morning cool air.

Right now, I believe 5 VFDs are out fighting a grassfire in the northern portion of our county. I'm listening to them on the radio while I type this. We don't usually have a whole lot of grassfires at night, but this is one of those years when seemingly everything odd is occurring.