For the first time this calendar year, the National Weather Service is discouraging controlled burns areawide both Thursday and Friday.
A combination of mild temperatures, relative humidity levels below 35 percent, wind gusts as high as 30 mph and — for the first time in a while — dry ground have the Weather Service asking landowners to delay any plans for controlled burns until conditions improve this upcoming weekend. The fire danger is officially high to very high areawide.
So far, the only burn ban affects Osage County for the rest of Thursday.
The grass fire season has gotten off to a very slow start this year, thanks to wet and snowy conditions through January and much of February. However, we haven’t had any precipitation at the KVOE studios since 1.5 inches of rainfall Feb. 3-4.
Concerns about fire danger should diminish for the weekend before increasing for the first half of next week with high temperatures in the 70s and blustery conditions expected.
Stay with KVOE, KVOE.com and KVOE social media for updates as warranted.
