A warm, relatively calm day Monday will lead to extremely windy conditions areawide and a low-end risk of severe storms for parts of the area Tuesday.
Temperatures will climb to near 80 degrees with winds under 10 mph for Monday. Winds begin picking up speed overnight and windy conditions return in full force for much of Tuesday, with gusts as high as 50-65 mph and temperatures near 90 degrees leading to critical fire danger. Fire weather watches are up for Lyon and most surrounding counties beginning at 10 am Tuesday.
Storms might develop across parts of the KVOE listening area late Tuesday night. Areas along and east of Kansas Highway 99 are in a marginal to slight risk of severe weather, with eastern Coffey and Osage counties in the slight risk area.
Sunday had one notable grass fire, a 60-acre fire that developed in the 1100 block of Road E, about five miles west of the Emporia Municipal Airport. No injuries or structural damage was reported. The cause is undetermined.
The activity early Sunday follows several small grass fires that developed in Lyon County with light to moderate breezes Saturday and another round of grass fire activity in blustery conditions Friday.
This also comes at the start of the annual burn restrictions for area counties as part of the Kansas Flint Hills Smoke Management Plan. The plan allows for controlled pasture burns, ceremonial fires and grilling, but debris piles, crop residue and construction waste cannot be burned through the month.
The fire activity also happens as overall burning sees its typical increase for area counties. Friday’s report via Facebook from Kansas Flint Hills Smoke Management shows over 5,300 acres burned across the KVOE listening area from Feb. 3 to March 19. Nearly 80 percent of the area’s acreage has been burned in Chase, Osage and Greenwood counties, with almost 1,700 acres alone in Chase County. Lyon County had over 300 acres burned in the most recent report.
Friday’s report shows almost triple the acreage burned areawide as compared to March 5.
More information about the Flint Hills Smoke Management Plan, including the smoke modeling tool, is available online at www.ksfire.org.
