Holy cow.

How are you and the fire gang holding up? It has to be reaching nightmare levels.

Diane

Hey Diane,

Thanks for asking. We are holding up well----though better on some days than others. Last week was a real killer, and it has been that way since July 3rd. This week has been a bit better, likely because our humidity hasn't dipped down into the teens this week.

We had a really bad stretch of fires but it has tapered off a little bit since then. During a six-day span, we had four 'all-page' fires where all 15 departments in the county are paged out simultaneously to one wildfire. An "all page' is a really drastic step to take. Sometimes we go a year or two without an all-page. Each of those 4 occasions involved wildfires burning in remote canyons with almost zero access. In those cases, all you can do is try to contain the fire within a given area by either bulldozing around the perimeter as close to the fire as possible, or by conducting burnout operations to burn out all vegetation ahead of a fire so that when it reaches the burnout area it has no fuel and dies. Between the burnout operations and the dozing of land (I hate what it does in terms of taking out vegetation and leaving bare ground for erosion, but you've got to do it), none of our wildfires has burned more than maybe 400 acres. That might sound like a lot, but last week/this week another difficult-to-access wildfire near the Falls Creek church camp in the Arbuckle Mtns. near Sulpur/Davis burned nearly 5,000 acres and required helicopters dropping bucketloads of a water/fire retardent mix. So, by contract, our fires seem small and much more easily managed.

Of course, all of these grassfires/wildfires still require lots of firefighters fighting fire on foot and by hand using fire suppression tools like axes and shovels. It is very hard on the firefighters physically in this heat. Last week, one firefighter went down in the heat and we had to call the ambulance/paramedics. We work so hard to avoid that, and yet all we can do is provide bottled water and Gatorade, snacks and meals, cool collars and wet towels, etc., but we cannot force firefighters who are on foot away from the Fire Rehab area to take a break and return to the Rehab Area to cool down, drink water, etc. I feel really bad when these guys put their health at risk in their desire to stop the fire as soon as possible.

So, with all those 'page all' fires we've been running all over the county. I've been places the last 2 weeks that I've never been before in 13 years of living here! : )

We've also had the standard run-of-the-mill hayfield fires, mower/brushhog-sparked fires, burning vehichles (catalytic converters igniting tallish grass in a pasture because someone stupidly drove their vehicle into grass that is too tall to be safe--and you lose both the vehicle and the pasture to the fire), housefires, etc. Also, there's been a lot more auto vehicle accidents than usual---a lot, lot, lot more. I think the heat is affecting everyone's driving skills or something.

This week we've only had one page-all fire, and I think that brings the grand total for this entire year to 6, with 1 last March or April, and 5 in the last 2 weeks. This week's fire on Tuesday was in our fire district, and burned rapidly across a portion of two ranches. It burned from Hwy. 77 to I-35, and had I-35 not been there to help us stop it, it might be burning still. What was scarey about this fire was how fast it moved. Our windspeed was around 8 to 10 mph, max, but due to the extreme dryness, this fire moved about as rapidly as we usually see with 35-40 mph winds. It was just flat scarey to see how fast it roared across the grassy pastures. Luckily, trees along a creekbed (dry) and the I-35 fenceline slowed it down.

And, true confession time here. Last week we went to a wildfire on wildlife management and oil field land in eastern Love County on a day when the official high was 107, although it hit 108 at our house, 113 in Thackerville, and 116 at a home in the general area of the fire. I got too hot at that fire and thought for a while I'd have to ask for medics for myself. I know the symptoms of heat exhaustion and recognized them, so sat myself down in the middle of the road--hey, that's where the shade was--drank more water (I already was drinking nonstop), put a wet towel on my head and another on my shoulders, and eventually felt better. On the way back to the fire station, my fellow fire rehab person told me that she felt the same way I did. Both of us described it as being "almost sick from the heat". I think we caught it early in ourselves....and five minutes after we sat down to cool off, the Incident Command person was calling medics for the firefighter who went down, so I think our heat that day must have maxed at that point and it hit us all about the same time.

I cannot even describe how many bottles of water and Gatorade we've been through in the last two weeks---I'd bet about 60 cases. Most cases range from 28 to 32 bottles.

I've been baking like a fiend because about the only meal we can serve at those fires this time of year is cold-cut sandwiches, but the firefighters don't mind the cold sandwiches so much if they're getting homemade cookies to go with them. With fewer fires this week, I've finished 5 batches of cookies and have them in the freezer, so I feel ready for anything.

Our poor firefighters are spending all their spare time working on firetruck maintenance and repair. We also spend an extraordinary amount of time on little stuff--cleaning up the trucks, restocking coolers and refrigerators, bagging ice from our small ice machine and putting it in the deep freeze so we always have lots of ice, etc. It is mind-boggling how much time you spend running to town to fill up air tanks, put fuel in the trucks, etc. We're all exhausted and, technically, fire season doesn't start until winter. I feel like last winter's fire season never really ended.

Sorry for rambling on so. Fires are consuming our lives right now.

In the cool hours, I've been going outside and cutting down all our pastures to about 1" in height so that when the inevitable fire occurs here, if it gets onto our place at least it will be slow-moving and we'll have a chance of putting it out.

The wildlife here is in horrible trouble and much of it is just disappearing. At our house, though, because I make wildlife puddles twice a day (big ruts filled with water from the hose for them) and fill up pans with water for them, and put out food twice a day, we have a huge abundance of bunnies and deer. Of course, you know my past history with predators, so having a huge abundance of deer likely is not smart---but they are so very hungry and most of the does don't even have fawns this year, and I am determined to help them stay fed to the extent that I can. If and when the predators show up, I guess we'll deal with that issue however best we can.

You'd laugh if you drove up our driveway around or shortly after sunset. You'd see tons of cardinals and doves feasting on little piles of cracked corn, henscratch and black oil sunflower seeds placed along the edge of the driveway. You'd likely see a squirrel or two frolicking near the pan of water I put under the fruit trees for them along with a handfull of henscratch. Deer would be out feasting on deer corn west of the barn, and the cottontails might be eating near the birds, squirrels or deer or eating in a quieter location further away where I put henscratch just for them. At the large wildlife puddle you'd probably see a raccoon or two standing a few feet from an armadillo who is standing a few feet from a rabbit, all feasting on the water in the puddle. Bees and butterflies and moths might be in the mud/shallow water on the edge of the wildlife puddle. Someone told me that our place looks like the Peaceable Kingdom at night. I think all the wild things are so greatful to have food and water than they just eat, drink, and leave. None of them are fighting or preying on each other. Everyone just seems to be focusing on surviving.

Our creek dried up this week, and it is spring-fed by springs on property near us. So, with no water coming from those springs, there is no water running downhill through the creek bed from the property across the street. With the creek being dry, snakes are now coming here to hang out in the shade near our lilypond. That's a bit of a problem. However, our creek, which runs through the property of probably six or eight different local residents before merging with another creek, was named 'Dry Hollow Creek' decades ago, so I suppose it is not unusual for it to dry up.

I also turn on a sprinkler twice a day for the birds. I put it in a spot so it will 'water' the tree canopies. The birds, including hummers, sit in the trees and let the water hit them. They fly back and forth in the water. They sing, sing, sing, sing, sing. They are very happy. Sometimes they are joined by dragonflies and damselflies. I don't know if the birds appreciate the sprinkler playtime for its cooling effect or if they just enjoy playing/bathing in it, but it is quite a spectacle to watch.

Don't you miss Oklahoma and its brutal summers? Huh? No, well, I guess I don't blame you.

Hope you're having a lovely day there. It is too hot here, and if we hit 100 degrees today, it will be our 22nd consecutive day of 100-degree-plus heat. I am SO over summer and hoping for an early winter, and I don't care if we skip autumn.

Dawn

Oh, Dawn, how horrible! I cannot even imagine what those poor firefighters go through. Nor you, their support. That dedication to serve others is... It leaves me speechless. (Or is it insanity? ;-) )

I have a friend who is a volunteer firefighter for her rural distrcit in central MO but, once a year for the past few years, she's volunteered to go out west on a two-week stint as a wildland firefighter. I think last year, it was Idaho. Most of those fires are huge and in rugged, mountainous wildlands. The descriptions of her trips read like nightmares to me.

I understand about heat exhaustion. Last week, I blacked out in the garden. The temps were only in the mid-90s but I was out there for over ten hours with only a 30-minute break for lunch. Since then, our temps have been hovering up around 100* and I've only been able to stay out for shorter spurts of time before I start seeing stars. I always have a wet towel around my neck and I always have water with me. But, I'm such a hardheaded dummy that, as I get going, I run out of water and say to myself, "I'll just finish this row before I get a refill or cool off my wet towel or sit down for a short break..." And, before I know it, I've been working in the sun for four or five hours without water or breaks. I just got swoozy & fell over today (but didn't completely black out like last week) and I wasn't even out there but an hour. But I finally got the corn & winter squash weeded so that makes it okay. :-P

Diane (who is now taking an ice water break inside with the a/c and fan blowing on me)

Diane, that sounds like a mild heat stroke. I had a major one in my 20's. I blacked out, got sick and my legs wouldn't work right to get up and into the house when I came to. I saw stars like that afterwards every time I got too hot. You need to be very careful because once you have had one, another is more likely than it was before.

Dawn, you must be a very generous person to do that for everyone. Baking in this weather? It sounds like a whole 'nother world down there.

Diane, I am horrified that you're not taking better care of yourself. Now, you be careful!!!! Do I have to drive up there and beat you over the head with the Most Beautiful Tomato Hat in the World to knock some sense into you? lol

Did you know that they found a man here in OK either dead or dying lying in a ditch the other day. Apparently he was mowing and passed out from a heat illness and died. I wouldn't want for something like that to happen to you, so please take better care of yourself.

Wildland firefighting is inherently dangerous and I wouldn't want anyone I love to do it as a profession. About two weeks ago a Bureau of Land Management 'Hot Shot' crew member died fighting a wildfire in Palo Pinto County, Tx, which is a couple of counties west of Fort Worth. He simply collapsed on the fire line and they couldn't revive him. He was 25 years old. Can you imagine what it has done to his family to lose him like that? My heart just aches for them.

Two of Chris' friends from high school went to one of the Wildland Firefighting Schools while in college, and one of them is still working as a wildland firefighter, as far as I know. The other is a professional firefighter at D-FW with him.

Janet, I am a cookie-baking fiend when we're having a large number of wildfires. It isn't always cookies. Sometimes it is cupcakes, muffins, cinnamon rolls or whatever. Right now I have two batches of cake balls chilling in the freezer so I can dip them into their chocolate candy coating. Our fire dept. is locally famous for its snacks and I will take some of the credit for that.

The firefighters like hot meals and they get them in the winter, but in the summer we feed them cold cut sandwiches so we aren't raising their internal body temperature with hot food. I make them cookies and stuff so they will have something 'yummy' to go with their cold cut sandwiches. For me, cooking for them is more fun in winter, because we can make them hot meals like chili, soups, stews, meat loaf, spaghetti or enchiladas.

One of our younger firefighters tells me several times a year that he moved into our fire district on purpose after we fed him (he was on a different VFD) a couple of meals one winter and he decided he wanted to join a dept. where he'd be fed enchiladas while at a fire. That story makes me laugh every time he tells it, and he's a good firefighter too, so I feel like we came out winners in that deal.

Living in a mixed prairie area interspersed with the Post Oak-Hickory woods is wonderful most of the time. At wildfire time, though, every clump of grass is just fuel for the fire. In a dry year, this place is a whole different world from what it is in a wet year. One of the oldtimers here, who was in his late 80s when we moved here, told me that 'there is no normal here', but it took me a few years to understand that. It seems like we're always either very hot and very dry and burning up (literally) or we're very wet and flooding. We only have 'average' weather on paper when they average together the wet years and the dry years.

Diane, Our firefighters have been out to two fires today, and I didn't go either time. I did have iced-down coolers of drinks on all the trucks, so I knew that as long as they had a brief fire, they'd be alright. I only have to roll on the big fires, and so far, no big ones today.

We hit 102, so that's our 22nd consecutive day of 100 or higher. Tomorrow our forecast is for 99! Not that we'll feel much cooler at 99 than at 100 or 101 or 102, but it will sound cooler. It is hard for me to believe we've hit 100 every day this month (and on the last day in June too). It isn't the 100s or 101s that are so hard to take--it is the 106s or 107s or 108s. After the recent string of 104, 106 and 107 degree days, 100 or 101 actually feels kinda cool.

Are you homesick for Poteau yet?

Dawn

Dawn, I could not possibly agree with you more about the dangers faced by wildland firefighters, or their bravery. Anyone who has never been near one of those fires simply has no concept at all of the conditions, whether it's on the ground or in the air.

I remember during Fountain Fire in CA when we had air tankers and helicopters doing their utmost to back up the ground crews and control it in very rugged terrain. The flames and heat were so intense that it put the aircraft in jeopardy if they got too low. We were monitoring the air traffic on a scanner, since the fire was getting closer and closer to the evacuation stage. One of the crew leader pilots was a woman. On one of the last runs for that particular day, there was another pilot, a man from out of the area, who did not want to make a drop because of the danger. The woman said 'With you or without you, I'm going in" and then she started calling off the plane numbers to group in tight formation and dive in with what they called a "daisy chain" pattern of one immediately after another. And in she went. Thank heaven they all came safely back out the far side. I've never been so awe-struck in all my life.

Pat

Dawn, I think we need to look for you a grant to help feed the starving wildlife. LOL

First , I want to say Hi to y'all,

Yikes, I am hunkered over my computer in a perverse Oklahoma/texas version of cabin fever. I don't want to go and work in my ACed shop. I don't want to water my dying garden , I don't wanna...... whine whine whine. All I can do is paperwork and that makes me very unhappy indeed.

I missed my chance to cut my grass in my fields because of a long job I had to travel for, and now I am so frightened of the dangers of cutting grass. To compound my confoundedness over this situation. I have all the tall grass left from the big spring and winter rains more than a year ago before the cloud faucet was turned off AND I spend my winters trimming up my cedar brake so my front field has 13 6' tall x 20' diameter stacks of highly flammable cedar brush that the county would not let us burn last winter because we were all ready under a burn ban. We had a grass fire 1/4 mile away up wind from the burn piles and the wind was blowing 20MPH a month ago. I was sh*tting bricks totally petrified. Every Fire Crew in a four county area was there in a heart beat. I stood on my metal shop roof and just broiled myself in the 101 degree heat watching it.There were some nice houses close to it. I also watched a 200 acre fire on a large ranch from the other side of the hill. It was about 4 miles away a week before that. the wind was 30 mph that day also. At least the wind has died down down here now as it usually does as the summer progresses. But this thing about fire roaring ahead in low humidity without a wind has gotten my attention since we had 16% humidity here recently.

I am still wondering if I should take my chances and go out and cut this grass. We are talking about a 5 acre field with brush piles, and 2 acre mosaic of cedar and tall native grass with buildings. Yes , I have limestone rock, ravines, etc. This is Central Texas. Diane, do you think I should chance it, and keep a bucket of water and wet blanket handy? I am normally comfortable with procrastination but this year , I have had primal fire fear staring me in my face. (I normally love fire and adore torching my large piles with ill restrained glee.) I have 17 acres of woodland . I am in that exburban interface area that we hear talked about.
I have trimmed up the underbrush in my woods near my house so the grass fire will have a harder time making the jump to the crown, but hey, I have a hard time taking comfort in that. There are not that many trees close to my house and none of them are the Mountain Ashhcedar. I do have some madrones and, REdd, there is no way I am cutting that down unless there is a fire baring down on me. Maybe not even then.

I have built my house out of hardy panel and metal with metal roofs, so I have made them as unfriendly as I could without just making them out of cement. But I have let the native grasses grow tall around them because of my love of natives. I still look at all the twisted metal and jumbled rock in photos of lost structures on the net, and I know that this is not a guarantee by any means. I will never forget that fear seeing that wildfire smoke headed towards me thinking, God what shall I do. Shall I chop my trees down, set hoses out, get my paper work and valuable art and jewelry in the car, computers. I could hardly decipher this ever growing list as the fire drew near. I am happy for the happy ending that we had, because I did nothing but climb on my roof and watch untill I was too hot and then went online to see what was being tossed around on the neighborhood email list . I think I got a hose and spread a tad of useless and very valuable water on the land that evaporated in 3 minutes before I felt my own futility. .

Hi Wantonamara,

Welcome to the forum.

The drought, heat and fire situation are scary and have been for months now. It is just that everything seems to be escalating almost out of control now in terms of heat, drought, and plants that are going dormant or dying---whether they are native or not.

If it is any consolation, I don't want to do anything outside either. I try to do my gardening chores and animal feeding chores very early and very late. Otherwise I attempt to hibernate inside the air-conditioned house.

I agree that we have reached the point in most of TX and OK that mowing can be dangerous in terms of sparking a fire. I think it is more dangerous to not mow, so I'd mow, but with a water hose hooked up and ready to go and a bucket of water very close by to where I was mowing, and a rake, shovel and wet burlap bag or other heavy-duty cloth all close to hand. I'd keep a cell phone handy too so I could call 9-1-1 right away if a fire sparked.

We are seeing incredibly rapid spread rates here with grassfires, and once they are up and running, they can get into brush and trees very quickly and become full-fledged wildland fires. For about 2 weeks now, I've been watching fires spread more quickly than I've ever seen any fire move in summer. They are moving as if being pushed by 35 to 50 mph winds even though on most days the wind is in the single digits.

I'd mow closest to the house and work my way outward if I could so you always have the shortest grass between your house on the one hand and your tractor/mower and the tall grass on the other. Often people start out at the farthest point and work their way inward, but during high fire danger, that's a big risk.

Having said all that, if I had those brush piles, and especially because they do contain cedar, I'd consider plowing a WIDE firebreak around the property if that is possible, or at least around all the structures. We've been having very bad fires in the western half of our county this month and you wouldn't believe how many people have started plowing firebreaks around either the entire property or the structures or even both---the outer firebreak just inside the fenceline and the inner firebreak around all the structures. The closer people live to the site of a recent fire, the more likely they are to be out plowing wide firebreaks. A few ranchers are plowing up entire fields. I am not sure if it is for fire prevention or other purposes. (It certainly is far too early and too dry to be plowing in order to plant winter wheat here.)

The time to decide to cut back dry landscaping near the house is not when a fire is a few hundred yards away, but rather somewhat earlier than that. I hope it is not a choice I ever have to make. We have worked so hard to plant nice trees that will eventually shade the house quite nicely and I do not want to sacrifice them for fire prevention if I can avoid doing so. We have limbed up all our trees, except for the fruit trees, so that the lowest limbs are 8' above ground in order to keep fire out of the crowns.

One thing that anyone with a house in an area prone to wildfire might want to consider is to buy a homeowners kit of sprayable fire retardant that can be sprayed with a simple garden hose. You can spray-coat your house or whatever else you wish to protect in just a few minutes. It isn't terribly inexpensive, but protecting our home with it would cost less than paying the deductible on our homeowner's insurance policy.

When fire is near my house, I focus on wetting down the ground on whatever side the fire is approaching from. Other than that, I try to get all the cats and dogs in the house so they are as safe as they can be as long as the house stays safe. Finally, I make sure the car is already parked facing the street and ready to go in case I have to make a run for it.

To be honest, when we moved here, wildfire was the last thing on our minds. We've seen several horrid droughts and fire seasons since then, and we have an 'escape plan' in place. You have to. If the fire is close enough you can see flame or smoke, it is too late to be making decisions about what to do----you need to be doing it!

Stay safe everyone. We had three fire calls today. That's right. Three in one day. Except in the worst of drought years, that just doesn't happen. It is happening now.

There are many, many fire retardants available for use by fire departments, insurance companies (some insurance comapnies hire fire protection companies to come in and spray homes when a fire is approaching, if time permits), and even homeowners. You can find them by Googling, but I'll link one below to get you started.
Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Thermo-Gel Fire Retardant

Thank you Dawn. We have a 600 acre Fire TODAY, RIGHT NOW, 2 miles from me. 1/2 contained. Lots of million dollar homes and a ex of Dell lives down there in a 10,000 square foot house. So all the equipment is out working. Dozers, helicopters, 15 units. Welder started it.

We have trimmed our trees up and limbed them away from the house. I guess I better get back to work. tomorrow.

You're welcome. I watch the fires carefully and noticed Texas had quite a few yesterday. Oklahoma had a couple of big ones in the SW part of the state.

If I had a 600-acre fire near me, I wouldn't be happy. I hope that they are able to save the homes.

Back in the 2005-2006 drought, whenever we left to go to a fire that winter (the fires started here in late Oct. 2005 that year), I'd leave three sprinklers on around the house--on the west, east and south side. I might come home to big standing puddles after being gone to a wildfire all day long, but I had the peace of mind of knowing our some was somewhat protected by the standing water. It seems wrong to do that now with water being in short supply this summer, so I haven't been leaving on sprinklers to protect the house, but so far this summer only a couple of fires have been anywhere close to us....and probably at least a half-mile away on a wind-free day, so I wasn't worried.

Often, when we are in drought, we overseed the acre around the house and other structures with winter rye grass to provide a green envelope around it. Unless rain falls between now and September, I can't imagine doing that this year. Our soil moisture levels are too low, and if we tried to overseed the lawn, it is likely all the seeds would fall down into the big cracks in the ground and we wouldn't get a good stand of grass anyway.

You can track the official fire progress on the website of the Texas Forestry Service by clicking on their daily updates or their Google Map application. On their fire-related Google Map, click on each flame icon to read the latest stats on that fire.

I check the OFS and TFS websites every morning around 9 or 10 a.m. after the agencies have had time to update their info from the day before. Sometimes I'm just trying to figure out where all the smoke in our air is coming from, so I'm looking to see if there's a big fire working in Cooke, Grayson or Montague counties, which are on the TX side of the river just across from us.

I'm going to link the TFS's Google Map. If the fire near you is the Ranch Road 3238 fire whose icon shows up in Travis County, at the last update they were showing 50% containment and 600 acres. So, with luck on their side, maybe they'll get it extinguished today.

Here is a link that might be useful: OFS Google Map of Fire Response Activity

Damn, your good. Yep those are the RT. numbers for hamilton Pool Rd. We have a neighborhood email list and if we hear multiple sirens, someone is on there asking where's it at. The info spreads quick. I think I saw the first fire engine coming in as I was leaving on an errand. As I said , this is 2 developments of very large intimidating homes especially if it got down into the canyons of Madrone Ranch. . I am still laughing at the Magnolia Moniker. This is limestone fossil, cedar brake highlands. Not a living Magnolia for miles. It must have started at a badly named road.

The Magnolia Fire (Belvedere & Madrone Ranch subdivisions) is now 80% contained at 400 acres. Approx. 60 homes (80 -100 persons) were evacuated and assisted by the Red Cross. Red Cross remaining on scene to provide meal and rehab services to our crews. At 9:00 am this morning, all residents were allowed to begin returning to their homes. A total of 30 structures were at one time threatened by the fire. No structures were lost. The fire went to 4 alarms, involving 17 different agencies. The fuels involved included light brush and light through heavy timber. Fire activity included some "torching" into the tree canopies. The preliminary cause is believed to be sparks from welding or steel cutting activity. There were three injuries on the fire; 2 firefighters (back and ankle) and 1 civilian (first degree burns). All were minor and patients refused transport.

Today the winds are 1-6 MPH with gusts of 12MPH

lol It wasn't that hard. You said you lived in Central Texas and you said it was 600 acres, so I clicked on the Google Map and there it was. I hope they're whipping that fire into submission today. You live in my favorite part of Texas---the Hill Country!

Practically speaking, that is a silly name for your area----anyone who knows the area would know a magnolia wouldn't have a chance there! On the other hand, how many roads can have the word "cedar" or "limestone" in their name without thoroughly confusing everyone? Still, you'd think they'd try to match the names to the natural features of the area.

At least the people in the area of the fire now have partial fire protection because the blackened area, if it burned thoroughly, cannot burn again.

I don't think we're quite as dry here yet as y'all are there, but we are having a lot of torching and crowning, and heaven help anyone nearby when the fire hits a snag because those suckers go up in a big 'whoosh' of flame.

My professional firefighter son is at work at D-FW Airport today, but texted me to ask all our daily fire danger data and I texted it back to him. He was a little concerned about some of our numbers, but the only one that worries me is our low 1-hr and 10-hr fuel moisture levels. I probably don't understand the Burn Index, Spread Component and Ignition Component well enough to know when to be scared---but he sure knows when they are worrisome.

Most folks here have stopped almost all outside welding activity. We were having welding fires as far back as April. Even under the current burn bans, welding is allowed with some restrictions so people still can do it. However, most folks here won't weld in a pasture in these conditions.

I don't want to jinx myself by saying this but other than filling up the coolers at the fire station and putting them on the trucks, I haven't had any fire activity to attend to in the last 44 hours. Woo hoo! Being free for that period of time has allowed me to catch up on laundry, some housecleaning chores and some harvest work.

Our humidity has been a bit higher today than it was earlier in the week and that may be helping us a little.

Dawn

I drove by there this evening and I saw some ground hugging haze but I wouldn't call it smoke in the classic sense.

You guys have had more rain than us later in the spring but when you are dry, you have been constantly hotter and your humidity is usually less this summer season.. So I can see the reason for your sons concern. That heat dome is much more centered on you. we are usually about 3 degrees lower than OKC. Even though I think we have had close to 60 days above 100. That is scary.

I would love a job naming streets for developments and colors for paint companies. Give me a Catclaw Mesa, Opuntia Serenade, Glochid Circle, Horse Crippler Creek. Shoot, I would never get out of the cactus family with names for roads. Then their is the rock component . We have Flint, fossils, Caliche, Love the sound of the word Caliche. Caliche Draw would not be the place to park a mansion . Stray Dog Loop

I am seeing scattered red spots on the radar. We will have more of that tomorrow and Saturday, I sure do pray.

I'm in Love County, just across the Red River from Gainesville, TX, and today was our 30th consecutive day with a high of 100 or higher. Just this week we've recorded a high of 109 and 107, but 102-103 would be more normal for us. This week our humidity has bounced around a lot, but in general we bottom out in the teens or low twenties every day here lately. I think we've "only" had about 40 days over 100 so far, but haven't kept track. Our hottest part of summer here usually is the first two weeks in August, so I'm dreading the next two weeks unless 'Don' sends us clouds and cooler weather. I keep thinking that it is OK if we don't get rain but please let us have a cool day!

My son is in his late 20s and he loves fighting fires. He hates it when we have a big fire here while he's at work, and he hates it when they have a big fire at work on his days off. He just doesn't want to miss a fire.

Many of our streets here are stuck in the 1930s or 50s or 70s, with the name of the original farming or ranching family. So, if the original family on our road was named Johnson, then we're on Johnson Rd. Two miles up, even though it is the same road, the name changes to Clifton Rd. because the Cliftons lived at that end of this long road, etc. It is really confusing because one contiguous roadway will change names several times. We're in the middle of changing names for Enhanced 9-1-1 and it is upsetting people to have 'their' name dropped from 'their' road in an effort to ensure that 1 road has only 1 name. Ultimately, all emergency vehicles will be able to find locations more easily, but the changeover likely will be difficult.

If they named roads for what grows well along those roads, Johnson Rd. would fit because we have tons of Johnson grass here...and crab grass and dallis grass.

I hope those red spots on the radar just keep on a-coming for the next couple of days and drop some big beautiful raindrops. Last week we had several potential thunderstorms, but all we got was dry thunderstorms with lightning which started fires in various places in our part of the state. What we really need is a storm with thunder, lightning AND rain...and I wouldn't mind if the thunder and lightning skipped us as long as the rain found us.

Have they put a chance of rain in your forecast for any of the next few days?

Wantonamara, you mentioned naming streets appropriately. How about this one? Buzzard Roost Rd. I didn't make that up. It actually exists and was down the hill from me in CA. I love unique names. There was one called Whistlin' Jack, and then of course we also had Shingletown and Whiskeytown. Oh, well.

Driving up Harrah-Newally Rd today on the way to the Drs, I was keeping an eye on the trees. Some damage and loss in the smaller understory trees, but what's really shocking is to see some that of the big oaks are dead. Not simply defoliated. Stone dead.
On the campus of OU Med in the city, a lot of young trees and shrubs are either already dead or in serious trouble. I doubt they'll make it. It looks like they were probably planted in the spring and have simply not had a chance.

Overall conditions that I could see in just that small area did seem to be better than they are closer to Shawnee. OKC has gotten more rain than we have. Although it hasn't been a lot more, every little bit is sucked up by the plants. Even if it's just enough to moisten the leaves and rinse off the dust, it helps.
We have a 20% chance of showers for tomorrow, with most of the activity apparently expected in the north. On Saturday, there's a slightly better chance of thunderstorms to the SE, but the conditions are pretty unstable. I think it's mostly a wait-and-see proposition at this point. Unfortunately, the extremely high temps are expected to return by the first of the week.

Pat

Pat,
There's a good chance the oaks are dormant and not yet dead. They often turn brown here and go totally dormant in droughts, and some of them eventually drop their leaves although often the post oaks will hold them until new growth comes out in late winter. Then, the following spring they leaf out and grow like nothing ever happened.

Every drought that we've had so far since moving here, which at our house would be in 2011, 2008-2009, 2005-2006, 2003 and in 1999 (and maybe 2000 but I don't remember when that drought broke), we have had oak trees brown out and go dormant. Then you have to wait for months to see if they survive, and at our place at least 98% of the oaks always come back the following spring. I'm talking about the unirrigated ones in the woods. Most well-established trees here, at least in the wetter half of Oklahoma, can survive about a year on stored energy are come back surprisingly well after prolonged drought. Younger trees, smaller ones and those that had pre-existing health issues may not come back. And, among all the understory trees that are not oaks, there does tend to be a lot more loss of trees, but even with them I am surprised at how some of them which appeared dead by August in a drought year will leaf out and grow just fine the following spring.

There have been some years when some trees appeared to die during drought and I was glad because they were encroaching on something else and really need to be cut down. So, in a odd way, I was thinking it was good they were "dead" but we didn't get around to cutting them down that winter, and then the following spring they leafed out again and were fine.

Having said all of the above, for most of us this is the most intense drought since records have been kept in our area, so I think we might see more plant death than we see following a typical drought year. Unfortunately the things I wish would die (hackberries, cedar trees, Johnson grass, crab grass, dallis grass, bermuda grass, poison ivy and greenbrier, for example) likely will outlast everything else.

I don't worry about the trees until our most drought-tolerant native trees start dropping leaves, which at our house would be the large, deeply-rooted pecan trees and the native persimmons. Our persimmon trees are little green islands in the midst of pastures that are otherwise totally brown and dry. If the persimmons start dropping leaves, then I'll believe it is dry enough that some of the oak trees might die.

Dawn

Dawn, I know what you mean about the trees being able to recover from horrid conditions. I've even seen trees with fire damage that recovered a lot of growth the following year.

What concerns me is that I'm seeing some of the oaks brown and/or defoliated, but some of them are totally bare and completely black, top to bottom. That sure looks like dead to me. Maybe they'll come back, but it doesn't look very promising.

Pat