Ticker for April 7, 2022

                
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April 7, 2022      April 7, 2022      April 7, 2022      April 7, 2022


A Thursday in Oklahoma




I know what you're thinking...I won't tell anybody because it's juuuust a bit on
the weird side. I know what ELSE you're thinking, too: When will the Oklahoma
wind machine shut off? We're gonna say June 12. We're just getting started. Today
we will see a continuation of the horrible fire danger that we've seen for a
couple of days now, but with the winds kicked up a notch or two. It looks pretty
benign right now, doesn't it?



But later today when the sun has worked its magic warming up the surface layer,
we'll start to mix some of those stronger winds from above that layer downwards
to where we live and breathe. I'm thinking some wind gusts out across western
Oklahoma could exceed 70 mph. We've seen that just recently, and I think we'll see
that again. Not good news for the firefighters that have to battle these blazes
that crop up, like the Beaver Fire that has burned nearly 24,000 acres and it's
still going at less than 15% contained.



The fire danger today remains extremely critical up across northwest Oklahoma
and the surrounding areas. A Red Flag Fire Warning is in effect for the western
half of the state as a reminder of the seriousness of the fire situation.



And this type of fire danger will continue for the next 7 days at least. Check
out the rather ominous message OFS put out to firefighters to try and prevent
what they call "Tragedy Fires." These are fires that can injure or kill the
heroes we ask to go out and fight these fires for us.



So on we go with this particular hazard until we can green up some. We're seeing
some decent green up across central and eastern Oklahoma, at least. Those areas
of green vegetation act as natural fire breaks that can limit the spread when
wildfires just get started. The same thing can occur with wheat fields out west,
but due to drought there aren't enough green wheat fields to steer the fires
into, unfortunately.

But as you can see from this Relative Greenness map, we still have a long way
to go. There is still way too much dormant/dead vegetation out there, having
overgrown over last year's cool and wet summer only to be desiccated by a good
9 months of drought. Speaking of, the drought is still going strong across the
western half of the state. We're definitely making progress across the eastern
half, but there is little hope upcoming for western Oklahoma.







This big storm system for next week looks like a Highway 81 (at best) east type
of system. Unfortunately for our western counties, I'm afraid that means at least
a week of warm-to-hot extremely windy days with continued fire danger and
intensifying drought.

Early next week, we could be dealing with lots of severe weather east of I35 and
big fires west of I35.



Rain will eventually arrive for even those parched areas in western OK. Let's
hope it sooner rather than later.

Gary McManus
State Climatologist
Oklahoma Mesonet
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
gmcmanus@mesonet.org