Jay, Y'all have the same fire danger today too. I heard about your fire danger on our local National Weather Service radio broadcast from Ardmore, about 25 miles north of us. It seemed odd to me that they were mentioning fire danger from an area geographically so far from us, but I figured it was because they needed to fill "air time" since you can't say much about "sunny, clear, and perfect weather again today. Chance of severe weather: zero percent". For a long time, we were in no man's land here too. When we first moved here in 1999, there was NO internet service available, the local TV stations were very hard to pick up even with a large antenna, and cell phone service was pathetic. We pretty much had to walk down to the road (300' from the house) to use our cell phones. I felt like we'd moved to the land that time forgot. Eventually, all three improved but it has taken years. Our then 14-year-old son wouldn't have survived the move to rural Love County without the DirectPC and DirectTV satellites we used to get internet service and TV reception. When we lived in Fort Worth, I always felt our weather forecasts were pretty accurate. Then, we moved here and I was just bewildered by how far off the forecasters could be. I don't necessarily blame the forecasters for that....we are in a very, very low-lying microclimate that's hard to forecast. So, through careful observation, I have learned that frosts occur here at our low-lying elevation even when they are not occurring in Marietta. I learned that our low temps here by the river could routinely go 10 degrees lower than the forecast in Jan.-April although that's not true the rest of the year, and the low temps have gone as low as 18 degrees below the forecast. (It was a shock to have an overnight low forecast of 50 degrees, and to go out in the morning and have frozen, dead tomato plants and a hard freeze.) In spring, nowadays I look at the overnight low and instantly assume we could go 10 degrees colder at a minimum and cover plants accordingly. I'm still having trouble understanding the rainfall. Based on 30-year averages, we should get 38" of rain here a year. I did a lot of research before we moved here, and found "average rainfall" data ranging from 38 to 48". However, most years we are thrilled to get 34", and have had several years when the rainfall was between 18" and 23". I suspect that, if they recalculate the 30-year averages at the end of the first decade of the 2000s, our "average" rainfall will drop from 38" to about 34". I hate that the wind is beating up your plants. We had those hot, drying winds last May in combination with the drought but I think the winds ended here in June and didn't last all summer. However, almost no rain fell. And, stink bugs which have never been a big problem here before, arrived in May of last year and I fought them all year long. I did have stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs in 2007, late in the year (August, I think), but not in the quantities that arrived last year in May. I also didn't understand how much of a "drought pocket" we were in here. It doesn't matter where rain is on the radar, it tends to go either west of us or east of us. It is like the rain reaches the Love County border and "can't" cross over the county line. It has taken me years to understand the drought patterns. Finally, this year a Noble Foundation researcher said that no matter how much rain falls, it only takes us three weeks of "no rain" here to fall back into a drought pattern. That backed up what I had finally figured out on my own. Of course, this year has been a rainy year so far, and I am grateful for the rain. I know from experience here, though, that heavy spring rainfall is usually followed by almost zero summer rainfall, so I am dreading the summer months before they even arrive. I had a lot more trouble with wind in the early years here. Now I have a lot more small trees, shrubs and flowers (not close enough to shade my veggies) that help serve as a wind break. on the west side, but can't do much with the south side because the driveway is there. I do grow vines on the garden fence, and once they attain some height, they help break the wind some too. My tomato and pepper plants are deliriously happy this week. Actually, they weren't totally thrilled at first. The first couple of days they had a little wilting by about 1 p.m. because they'd had mostly cloudy skies and almost no sun for over two weeks. They've adjusted though. The tomato plants are blooming and setting fruit. The pepper plants have just begun blooming. My largest unripe tomato is about the size of a tennis ball and we've already harvested some ripe tomatoes from container plants that I transplanted into large pots in February. I should start having ripe fruit from plants in the ground any time now because we have quite a few green ones. Of course, in the same way that a watched pot never boils, a watched green tomato doesn't turn red, so I am trying to ignore them and not obsess over when they are going to ripen. After three hard days in the garden, I am slowly regaining some control and it is starting to look like my garden again. By the end of the week, I think I'll be pretty happy with it overall. The mosquitoes, though, are the size of small aircraft. Dawn

Bon, If y'all have a weather radio with the alert feature, most county emergency management officials will ask the NWS to set off the warning alert tone when a fire evacuation is ordered. Otherwise, check tomorrow with your local emergency management officials or the fire department (paid or volunteer) nearest to you to see if they have a notification system. Some counties have a reverse-9-1-1 system that calls residents to alert them when something like this is occurring. In some counties, you have to sign up to get these alerts. In others, it robocalls all the residents. Some county emergency management officials tweet out news like this. All I can suggest is you listen to your weather radio or local media for instructions. It always is advisable to have an emergency evacuation plan and a "go bag" ready for each person, including your most important family papers and medications. If you have animals, have their pet crate or leash, food, etc. packed and ready to go. With the weather we are having now, every one of us needs to have a plan, and a back-up plan, on how we'll leave our property QUICKLY in the event a wildfire is moving our way. You should, if possible, have two ways off your property. Last year, our next door neighbor put a big cattle gate in the fence between his place and ours, so now we both have two ways to leave--via our own driveway, or by driving across a pasture and through that gate to the other adjoining property. Hopefully, we'll only use the cattle gate for cattle, but it is nice to have that as an option. Despite my years of involvement with our VFD, last year was the first time I seriously had to figure out how I could evacaute myself and our pets if I was home alone. It wouldn't be easy, but I wouldn't leave them behind. The scary thing about fire is how spotting occurs, where new fires start from embers blown ahead of the advancing fire line. Wind-driven fire is more dangerous than wildfire on a calm day with low wind, but remember that fires create their own wind and own weather. If I hear anything about Payne County, I'll let you know. I usually rely upon the Oklahoma Forestry Service, NWS or local media for anything outside my own county. For my county, I have the fire radio, of course. If your county has a website online that they keep updated, check it. Good luck. Just keep your eyes and ears open and be prepared to flee at literally a minute's notice. Usually, when the call comes to evacuate ahead of the fire, you must leave without a minute's hesitation. That's why you need Go bags packed and ready to grab and go. Most people who perish in a fire do so because they do not heed the warning to evacuate immediately. When my county evacuates, the word goes out on the weather radio, the fire/police radios, etc. Anyone with a scanner can hear the radio traffic and know what's happening even before the weather alert is sounded. Our EM director also texts out news like that via nexle.com. Check with your county tomorrow to see if they use that or a similar service to keep their residents in the loop. Fire Departments may or may not have time to sound the storm sirens at their stations (not all departments have those) to warn residents because they all may already by out in the field fighting the fire. Probably you and I will not be able to figure out any other way tonight for you to find out what is going on, but tomorrow would be a good time to find out your options for future fires. There are and have been several large fires the last few days, including a 140 acre one in LeFlore County, a 500 acre one in Johnston County, and a big one now in its third day in Creek County. I'd say the summer fire season is upon us, ready or not. Dawn

The Red Flag Fire Warning expired.

The Red Flag Fire Warning has been expanded to include Clay, Cotton and Jefferson counties, where it is in effect through 6 p.m. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: NWS Enhanced Webpage