A very high fire danger exists areawide the rest of Thursday.
Winds have shifted from the southwest to the west-northwest and are expected to increase to between 20-30 mph through the afternoon. Relative humidity levels, above 60 percent at times through the morning, are supposed to drop to around 30 percent into the early evening. Grasses remain dry and dormant despite 1.5-4 inches of rain areawide last weekend.
Outdoor burning remains strongly discouraged or banned. Chase County has extended its burn ban into Friday, while bans for Coffey and Osage counties are ongoing until further notice.
Air quality has improved areawide Thursday. Air quality as reported by AirNow dropped from good to moderate early Thursday as a result of smoke plumes from large wildfires in western Kansas and southwest Oklahoma. Air quality went back to good around 8 am.
5 am Thursday:
Once again, the KVOE listening area is looking at a very high fire danger Thursday.
Gusty winds up to 30 mph and a wind shift from southwest to northwest signal a drop in relative humidity levels to around 30 percent by midday. With grasses dry and dormant despite heavy rain almost a week ago, the National Weather Service and area fire departments are urging residents not to burn Thursday.
Burn bans remain in place for Chase, Coffey and Osage counties at this time.
Meanwhile, the air quality areawide is being noted after massive grass fires that developed in west Oklahoma and southwest Kansas on Tuesday and Wednesday. Smoke plumes have stretched over 250 miles to the northeast in some cases. So far Thursday, AirNow, the federal monitoring website, has Emporia in moderate air quality. The closest monitoring site for Agilaire, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment equivalent, is in Topeka.
