Dawn,
Again a difference in the Dodge City forecast and the Amarillo forecast. Either way it will be windy and extreme fire danger. I didn't work on the greenhouse again yesterday on account of the winds and danger here. Getting to the point I'm going to have to water things down extremely well and try to make some progress. The only calm days I seem to be at work. Ours is saying 25-30 and gusting to mid 40's. That is extremely dangerous. But again that forecast will be more for Dodge City so I expect winds to be some stronger here. Our fire dept went out yesterday. My phone and internet line got tore down yesterday by a driver with the gin poles on his truck up. Felt for my nephew's coworker who had to work in the bucket with the wind moving it and trying to splice fiber wires. Took him several hours. Jay

Jay, I was wondering if y'all would be as windy there as what is forecast for the OK Panhandle.

Today's winds are definitely a cause for concern, especially with the drought conditions and extreme to very high fire danger.

It has been so windy here that I can't get a lot of things done either. The naked frame of my greenhouse sits there waiting patiently for a non-windy day so we can finish it.

Our county is just finishing up its second week of a 30-day burn ban, and it has been so wonderful because we've hardly had any grassfires or wildfires at all since they passed the burn ban. Yippee!

We've always felt like a lot of our fires are arsons, and a couple of weeks ago, the undersherriff arrested 2 arson suspects. That may be another reason we haven't seen fires lately. (We've been making up for it with highway accidents though, so our firefighters still are busy.) Yesterday or maybe the day before, some idiot was burning leaves on a windy day in a county with a burn ban and high fire danger. What is wrong with people? His local VFD was dispatched to his house and put the leaves out.

We don't usually have trouble here with power poles or power lines as long as the winds stay under 45-50, so we should be alright today, unless an arcing power line causes a fire. However, once the winds are gusting 50 or higher, there's one particular stretch of state highway 77 that is very exposed to the wind and we often have power poles snap along that stretch of roadway. So, whenever they issue us a high wind watch or warning or if they warn of blowing dust, we sort of expect to be dispatched for "burning power poles". Usually, they're not burning although occasionally the snapped power line starts a grass fire or is throwing sparks around scaring people.

I feel for your nephew's coworker. I cannot imagine trying to do the job he was doing in that kind of wind.

If ever there was a day when accidental fires are likely to start, it will be a day like today. Our forecast here calls for wind gusts of up to 39 mph today and tonight, but so far the gusts are mostly staying in the 25-33 mph range.

Ironically, while I was finishing typing this up, a police call came out on the radio that somehow involves a horse that is down injured and bleeding, a transformer, power lines that are down, and all of it close enough to the train tracks in town that they're going to have to stop the trains, I think. Details are fuzzy, but the main issue at the moment is that they're having trouble finding a vet (I bet our two local vets are in church with their cell phones turned off) to come treat the horse. So, if there's power lines down, maybe the wind is blowing harder in Marietta than it is down here along the river.

Dawn

Dawn the winds are picking up here but so far not any higher than yesterday.

Yes I felt for the coworker. Jace said he has helped them splice the glass fibers before. He said it is hard enough standing on the ground during calm weather let alone in a bucket that the wind is swaying. He did bump the bucket into the pole for support but as you well know in 35-40 mph winds that doesn't stop it from moving. It was interesting to watch him on the ground. After they splice it they have a test the instrument runs and tells them how good of a splice they formed. If it isn't good enough then they have to cut it and redo it. And any movement Jace says can affect the splice. Each end has to have one.

I think I posted before out of the six major fires almost 2 weeks ago they are sure that 4 of them were caused by arcing lines. And I know of a few more over the last month attributed to arcing lines. We usually don't have that many caused by the lines arcing.

They have now lowered our chances of moisture tonight and tomorrow. Doesn't surprise me. I was told yesterday that our area has been declared an exceptional drought area and I think they are seeking some official declaration so farmers,ect can get some drought relief.

Hope all goes well with the accident involving the horse. So far our FD hasn't been called out today. Jay

Jay,

If y'all aren't in exceptional drought after 3 years of ongoing drought, what does it take? I hope they get all that straightened out so the farmers can qualify for drought assistance. I feel like y'all stalled on the U. S. Drought Monitor map and just sat there in the same category practically forever. I've never been able to figure out why y'all seem to be in some alternate universe where your drought is not taken seriously by everyone else.

After they starting calling around looking for a vet, I never heard much more but I think it was a less serious situation than it sounded at first. By the time they'd stopped talking about it on the emergency radio, it appeared the horse had run into a guy-wire and there was not a power line down near the horse. I think that confusion resulted from the OG&E guy radioing in (and he had so much static no one could understand him) about the horse and then people assumed the horse had been hit by a power line, but I think he hit the guy-wire and the power line itself didn't come all the way down. It did sound like the horse was cut and bleeding. We can get all the details (she says sarcastically) when our weekly paper comes out on Friday. (By then, no one will even remember what happened today.)

Other than being paged out to look for 2 missing children (they were found before we even left the house), we haven't had any calls today and I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

I saw on the news a few minutes ago that they were evacuating more folks in Colorado today because wind gusting up to 90 mph had turned a 20-acre fire that started last night into a 2,000 acre wildfire. Two canyons have been evacuated and a third is on standby. Those 90 mph wind gusts must really be something---I can't even imagine that. Wind gusting into the 40s and 50s is bad enough.

Dawn

Dawn,
Glad it wasn't any worse.

Yes I agree it seems one gov't dept. never talks to the other one. It is the worst 3 going on 4 year period since they have been keeping records. The winds weren't so bad till after noon. I kept debating about working on the greenhouse. Decided to finish my planting first. On what will be my last tray of veggies now. May start a few flower seeds inside also and try that. I have a half a tray of peppers yet to go. Then basically finished. May plant a few more grafting plants in a few days and also if the seeds from Tom Wagner arrive within a few days I will plant some of them. I already have more in than I can grow. And so far on the first 2 trays germination rates have been very high. Will see how they continue to grow in the new mix I'm trying. The winds right now on an instant update site 4 miles from me is varying from 30-44 mph. When talking to the other grower yesterday. I asked him how he planted his tomato plants in his sand. He said like I do in a hole. If smaller straight up and if tall and lanky slanted some. We talked a little about how gardening practices vary so much even within a few miles. You go south of town to my sisters tight ground and you can't plant the way we do. And you can trench there successfully. Here in this deep sand if you trench in even if you cover with mulch it is hard to keep them wet enough to establish a good root system unless you trench 6-9 inches deep. So I just dig a wide hole that deep and slant them some if needed. A shallow (4-5)inches planted plant here takes a lot more water at least the first 30-45 days if it gets hot early. Sometimes hard to keep them watered enough with the wind and early heat we've had the last few years and looks like we might have this year. I don't expect it too improve any. With all the organic matter I've added it has helped my soil to retain moisture better. So shallower planting might work better now. Hopefully there won't be any fires today but will be surprised if there isn't any. Jay

Dawn,
I just received an email on the prayer chain I'm on and they said there is a big fire approx 60 miles NE of me and that they are evacuating people in parts of the town and areas around Satanta,KS. Sounds bad. I never heard our fire dept leave here but understand some units from our county is up there fighting. Winds are still gusting over 40 mph. Jay

Jay,

What new planting mix are you using? I want to hear about it!

This year I'll be planting deep too since my soil moisture levels down deep are good, but soil moisture levels higher up are not good. I'll have to water deeply to make it work and with clay that's not always easy.

That's terrible news about the fire near Santanta, KS. I hope everyone evacuates safely and that the firefighters can do their job in a safe and effective manner. With the winds today, I've felt like it was a matter of time before someone had a big fire somewhere.
The sky here looks disgusting. For a while, it was a sort of a red dusty look like you get with dust storms blowing in from west Texas. Then, a couple of hours ago it started looking more like grayish-white fog or smoke from somewhere. Now it is yellow and a heavy layer of pollen is settling on the vehicles. We're going to have a whole rainbow of colors in the sky tonight and tomorrow.

At least most of us here on this forum will not be endangered by the severe weather expected tonight and tomorrow. Dr. Forbes on The Weather Channel seems deeply concerned about the potential for very severe weather from all this mess, but it should start north and east of most of us.

This morning, they interviewed a Storm Chaser guy in Sherman, TX, and asked where he and his bunch were headed today and he said Coffeyville, KS. He said once they got there, they'd check the latest weather data and head for wherever they thought the action would be.

Around here, when we have the potential for severe weather that includes tornadoes, I just watch for the storm chaser vehicles. When those vehicles are driving up my road, that's when I head for the fraidy hole. Last year, Chris was out storm spotting with other firefighters and law enforcement officers and they ran into some storm chasers about a quarter-mile to a half-mile from our house. I heard them mention that on the radio and I headed for the cellar. About fifteen minutes later, the tornado touched down at the Red River near us and hop-scotched its way across the county, but didn't do any real damage. I don't really have to watch the local weather radar---I just watch for the storm chasers and that's all the warning I need.

Dawn

Hum - That's about 80 driving miles from me, and much closer to my son, so I guess I will watch very closly tonight.

I just check NWS and it doesn't look like it will come that far south to me.....but I have been wrong before.

Carol,

That was early this morning around 8 or 9 a.m. when the storm chasers were leaving Sherman, and then they were to going to drive 5 to 6 hours to reach Coffeyville, and then decide where to go from there. It could be that by the time they were close to Coffeyville, they may have figured out they had to drive a lot more. In late afternoon or early aternoon the first watch box for severe T-storms went up and it wasn't even close to Coffeyville.

You could look at the link and see all active watches and warnings just to see if anything is remotely close to NE OK.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: National Watch/Warning Map

Dawn, They do have thunderstorm warnings in those counties, but it looks worse further north. The forecast shows an 80 percent chance of rain for us.

We had a lot of wind today so it helped to dry things out a little. I have been able to get a few more things planted this week. I had my tomatoes out for a long time today and had to water twice, but I was afraid they were getting too much wind so I brought them in. Tomorrow night the forecast is for 31-34 depending on which one you look at, but after that it is looking pretty good.

The winds here have been high all day, well over 30mph with gusts around 60. The wind has changed to the north in the last hour but is still very strong. Fire fighters have been battling a fire on the southwest side of Guymon since late afternoon. We have heard there are some homes that were destroyed but nothing we can confirm. It is easy to see the smoke from 25 miles away so we know they have a big fire. All of the local volunteer fire crews have been called out. The change in wind direction might help.
Keep praying for rain. Our volunteer fire departments have to be exhausted. They fought fires yesterday and will probably be up most of the night with this one.
Jan

I was headed to Guymon. Got to my sisters house and decided to just stay there. My BIL had just came from there. Said it was on the SW part of town. Then about 30 minutes ago as I was leaving he talked to his cousin who has farm ground in that area and was told they had it under control and it was about out except for some hot spots. He was told no houses were lost but some buildings were possibly. Then when I got home I had an email and there is one burning around Walsh, CO and they are asking for help. I imagine that some of our units will have to return from helping with the other fires before they can head that way. Fires are all around us. They had a city wide prayer for rain at a local church last night. Fire danger is extremely high. Jay