By and large, the KVOE listening area missed out on the fire danger from Tuesday.
Several Lyon and Osage county fire departments responded to a combination vehicle-and-grass fire just after 9 am as a semi caught fire in far west Osage County. Burlingame Fire handled the grass fire, while Miller and Reading handled the truck fire. No injuries were reported. Peak wind speeds were already above 30 mph when the fire developed.
Aside from that incident, no grass fire activity was reported in area counties from Tuesday into early Wednesday.
That wasn’t the story further west. Several grass fires developed in low humidity and rode wind gusts at or above 60 mph. Several towns, including Ashland and Herndon, and residents in portions of Comanche and Seward counties were forced to evacuate but those orders have been lifted. Interstate 70 was also shut down between Colby and Oakley because of wrecks caused by blowing dust and low visibility.
Humidity levels were much higher across the KVOE listening area and much of eastern Kansas than they were out west, helping to limit the fire danger despite temperatures in the 60s and wind speeds above 30 mph for most of the day. The fire danger will be very high almost statewide Wednesday, with temperatures in the 60s, gusts up to 25 mph and humidity levels below 25 percent. The fire danger will be high or higher again Thursday.
County-specific burn bans remain in place for Chase County until at least Thursday and for Coffey and Osage counties until further notice.
