The Fire Weather Watch has been converted to a Fire Weather Warning for quite a few counties in SW and Western OK this morning. Other counties remain under a Fire Weather Watch. Whether you live in the watch or warning area, fire danger is still considered "Extreme" (a step up from "Very High" but not as bad as "Extremely Critical") for most of the state today. It is likely similar conditions will exist again on Thursday. We've already had at least one grassfire here in Love County this morning, but it wasn't big or bad. Dawn

I know. For our part of southern OK, the fire season started very early--in Aug. or Sept. instead of in Feb. or Mar. and it has been a very long ordeal. Someone near Lake Murray lost a home to wildfire in Sept. and someone in western Love County lost a metal building they used as a shop and a classic car they'd been restoring for a long time. In the first case, it was arson and, in the second case, I believe the resident was burning illegally during a burn ban so caused their own loss of their own beloved restored classic car. All I can say is that burn bans exist for a reason! Most of our grassfires and wildfires have resulted only in the loss of pasture grass, brush, trees, fences, etc. In some cases, though, some ranchers have lost a significant number of hay bales--and usually when "someone else's fire" moved onto their property. I hate to see that happen. We have had several thousand acres burn here in the last 6 months. (sigh) And, every now and then someone has lost a tractor or other expensive farm equipment, which is unfortunate. I feel really bad for the folks you mentioned, Kathi. I bet they were just sick when they hard about what had happened. The folks who make me crazy are the ones who stand next to a smoking burn barrel or burn pit from which the fire OBVIOUSLY originated and then spread outward and insist that no, they were not burning anything and don't know how it happened. Well, the rest of us know how it happened. Y'all be careful. It seems like almost every time we have a fire weather watch, we have a bad fire day around here. And, having seen video of this weekend's wildfires in Australia, I am just so grateful that we've never had that kind of way-out-of-control wildfire here in OK. Dawn

Do y'all really think it will happen? I'm certainly not convinced we'll get much snow or that it will stick around. It it snows, that's fine--I'll be inside starting seeds. If it doesn't snow, that's fine too--I'll still be inside starting seeds. So, it is likely it won't affect me much either way. I've been watching the models for this storm for 8-10 days now and they'll been all over the place. The storm models that are fairly reliable this far out show the storm trying to take a more southerly path than they were showing a few days ago. Currently, there are snow-related watches and advisories across several southern states that don't see much snow, including some parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and even a bit of Georgia. The Thursday-Friday snow will be nothing compared to today's Nor'easter that has had low enough pressure that it is essentially the equivalent of a Cat. 1 hurricane if not worse. (After last night's and today's snowfall, several major Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern cities have set all-time high annual snowfall records for the winter of 2009-2010, although the records generally only go back to about 1880.) But, for southern areas that rarely see snow, the Thurs.-Fri. storm could be a big deal. I don't particularly want snow. I was sort of hoping it would miss us since we are still so wet and muddy that the ground 'squishes' when you walk. Well, it doesn't squish early in the morning when I go out to feed/water the animals because it is frozen, but it squishes as it thaws. It is time for some sunlight, heat and warmth so that the ground will dry out enough for planting. It's planting time! Y'all do know there's a slight chance of more precipitation early next week don't you? If you want, click on the watch/warning map linked below to see the warnings that go across several southern states for Thursday or Friday. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: NOAA's Watch/Warning Map for the USa

Plantermunn, I know just how you feel! I watered the acre around our house, barn/garage, chicken coop, and veggie garden for almost 36 hours straight before the fires began and had to leave the house just hoping the watering would pay off if fire came our way. I did see people standing in their yards with a sprinkler or two going and a water hose in their hands trying to keep the fire away from their homes yesterday. In some cases, the fire was just a few yards away from them and their homes. I won't know until I get back out there today if they succeeded in saving their own homes. Moni, When we lived in town, I never gave grass fires and wildfires a second thought and never, once, felt threatened by them. That all changed when we moved to rural Oklahoma, though. Now, every decision I make, including which plants to plant, is made with "firescaping" in mind. It is like living in a whole different world. Kathy, Wasn't the best night for a block party, was it? Air quality still horrendously bad here this morning. Amanda, Thanks for the love you're sending out today. Mitch, I am sorry to hear about all the devastation and especially about Dibble. I met some firefighters from Dibble when they came here in March to help us with a huge wildfire in the Pike/Oswalt Rd. area and they were nice guys. (Can you believe they drove from there to here to help us that night? Every dept. in your county sent us at least one truck that night and they arrived in one big convoy--and we were so very grateful for their assistance.) I am sure today will be a better day, but for those struggling with the lose of their homes and possessions, it will be a very hard and emotional day as they begin to deal with their losses. My heart goes out to all those folks. Dawn