Outdoor burns planned for the upcoming weekend are now banned for Lyon and surrounding counties.
The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for Lyon, Coffey, Morris, Osage and Wabaunsee counties from 11 am to 10 pm Saturday. Chase and Greenwood counties, meanwhile, are in a separate red flag warning from 12-10 pm. This trims the fire weather watch timing for most of Saturday, but the watch still exists areawide from 10 pm Saturday to 7 pm Sunday.
Generally, red flag warnings signal critical fire danger and significant unpredictability in fire behavior. As far as weather specifics, area residents will see record high temperatures in the low 90s for Saturday, along with south winds as high as 40-45 mph and relative humidity levels below 20 percent.
Emporia firefighters had a busy Thursday with grass fires, and they are urging landowners to make sure prior burns are out as the fire danger revs up for the weekend.
Firefighters had three relatively small fires to put out in Lyon County on Thursday:
*Emporia and Americus went to a roughly 20-acre fire in the 2000 block of Road C shortly after 1:30 pm
*Emporia went to the 1300 block of H for a 10-acre fire as they were ending their effort on Road C
*Emporia handled a 5-acre fire in the 1500 block of Road 140 around 5:20 pm
All three fires were initially controlled burns that went out of control. In the Road H incident, a water tank rolled out of a truck and was rendered useless for firefighting.
Temperatures will be in the low 90s Saturday and the upper 70s Sunday, but Emporia Fire Capt. Ben Lienemann tells KVOE News firefighters have had concerns about the weather conditions since our last rainfall March 10.
Lienemann says area fire departments are ready for what may come.
Stay updated through KVOE and KVOE.com.
