Nearly a million acres of grass were burned across the KVOE listening area during the 2021 grass fire season, and that number is still well short of the 2020 number.
This week, Kansas Flint Hills Smoke Management announced the early findings from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s burned acres analysis between Feb. 23 and the end of April. Chase County had over 314,000 acres burned. That was the highest total in the report, either in the KVOE listening area or across the over 20 counties surveyed in Kansas and Oklahoma. Greenwood County came in second overall and areawide with almost 220,000 acres burned. Wabaunsee County was third areawide and fourth overall with almost 170,000 acres.
Lyon County was fourth areawide and sixth overall with over 115,000 acres.
Areawide, the amount of acreage burned was some 300,000 acres short of the 1.3 million acres burned last year. The overall total was also lower than last year — 1.9 million acres this year versus 2.6 million acres in 2020.
The report is based on satellite images and does not separate the controlled burns from the uncontrolled.
Even with the lower totals this year, the 2021 grass fire season was extremely busy with numerous out-of-control grass fires taking place simultaneously on a regular basis in March. Several of those fires burned well over 1,000 acres before they were extinguished.
2020-2021 grass fire acreage comparison
Lyon County. 2020 acreage: 159,231. 2021 acreage: 115,879
Chase County. 2020 acreage: 343,359. 2021 acreage: 314,833
Coffey County. 2020 acreage: 61,330. 2021 acreage: 55,028
Greenwood County. 2020 acreage: 296,671. 2021 acreage: 219,155
Morris County. 2020 acreage: 147,293. 2021 acreage: 78,288
Osage County. 2020 acreage: 61,870. 2021 acreage: 45,144
Wabaunsee County. 2020 acreage: 231,820. 2021 acreage: 169,966
Total 2020 acreage: 1,301,574
Total 2021 acreage: 998,293
