Scott I went to the OK Mesonet and looked at the OK FIRE screen and pulled up the Cookson station and your numbers there look pretty good for this time of year. Your ignition component is a little high, but so is everyone else's at this time of year. At least you are not in a Fire Weather Watch or Red Flag area, so your risk of an out-of-control fire there is low. For what it is worth, our neighbor was burning brushpiles in an area similar to yours yesterday, and his didn't get out of control. It is the grassy pastures, esp. those with sand love grass, that tend to go crazy burning like mad when the wind is up and the humidity is down. My county is not in a Red Flag Fire Warning area, but our humidity is plunging and it is pretty windy....not exactly enough to worry me, but enough that I don't go outside without the fire radio, and I do find myself watching the skies. You know what it is like here at this time of year. I'll be relieved when we make it to May. Hardening off the plants is hard. Every day I try to strategically place my plants in the most sheltered area I can and the wind (and especially the hot wind) still gets to them. That's just one of the things we have to deal with in March....and even into April. Good luck with your controlled burning this week. Dawn

bump

The NWS has issued a Red Flag Fire Warning for extreme western Oklahoma and the OK Panhandle for this afternoon and evening, and for portions of adjacent states as well. For the OK Panhandle counties, it is in effect from 11 a.m. through 10 p.m. For the western OK counties, it is in effect from 3 p.m. through 8 p.m. this evening. The fire conditions causing concern in western Oklahoma include: Temperatures from 101 to 108 degrees Winds in the 20-30 mph range and gusting to 35 mph with isolated gusts into the 40s possible. Humidity in the 14-20% range. Similar but perhaps slightly worse conditions exist in the OK Panhandle. Any fires which start could spread quickly so take all the usual precautions and report all flames and smoke to your local emergency authorities as quickly as you can. You can click on the link below to see the affected area highlighted in pink on the county map at the bottom of the page, and can click on any county to read the forecast for that county. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Webpage of Norman office of the NWS

Bumping this down