Drought/Burn Bans

16 years ago

I know most of you will not be outside burning brush piles or conducting prescribed burns to revitalize native prairie land. But you never know......

I check the Oklahoma Forestry Service's Burn Ban map every week, watching it to see where fire danger is obviously high enough that county officials have passed a burn ban. I am, technically, tracking drought to help our local VFD with awareness and planning, but as a gardener I use the info to help me make decisions too.

The four counties with current burn bans, the date they passed the ban, and their current Keetch-Byram Drought Index number are:

Cherokee County (8/26/10) KBDI: 640

Haskell County (8/30/10) KBDI: 697

Latimer County (8/30/10) KBDI: 731

LeFlore County (8/30/10) KNDI: 687

The Keetch-Byram Drought Index is a measurement that predicts fire intensity were wildfire or grassfire or forest fire to occur. It is on a scale of "0" (completely saturated soil) to "800" (completely dry soil). Once the numbers are about 600 or higher, compost/humus/duff layers in/on the soil will burn as will some underground tree roots. Obviously, the closer you get to 800, the more likely it is that tree roots will burn.

I use the KBDI numbers, as a gardener, to tell me how dry the soil around me is. Once our county's KBDI hits about 500 I start watering the soil around the building foundations, and once it hits about 625 or so I stop watering the garden because no amount of water is going to save it. In Love County, our KBDI just hit 626 today so if rain doesn't fall this week, I'll likely stop watering and start working instead on fire dept. stuff.

I've never seen KBDI's in eastern OK around or over 700 before--but we've only lived here 12 years, and I think I've only tracked KBDI's for about half that time. So, if you're in eastern OK and wondering exactly how dry you are, I'd say your area is about as dry as it ever gets, at least in recent history.

I say it every time we talk about weather, drought, rainfall, etc. and I'll say it again: we need rain desperately in many parts of our state!

Dawn

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Comments (7)

Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
16 years ago
Oooh....I see some of y'all are getting or have gotten rain today. That's wonderful! Well, unless you're in the areas with flooding/potential flooding.

We didn't have rain here in our county today, so we were out fighting a grassfire....ironically, it was at a grass sod farm. So, if y'all have any extra or leftover rain, send it our way!

There's more rain in the forecast for tomorrow, so maybe a lot of folks will get some drought relief and it will perk up everyone's landscapes and gardens.

Dawn
greenacreslady
16 years ago
Dawn,
I hope you're getting some of that much needed rain today ... it looks like you might be from what I see on the News9 radar. Our friends in Tahlequah (Cherokee County, one of the four you listed) are finally getting some rain today. It looks like much of the southern, eastern, and southeast sections of the state are getting rain.

Suzie
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Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
16 years ago
Suzie,

I've been out dancing in the rain today! (Especially since the August water bill arrived in this morning's mail.)

We have had oodles and oodles of rain from three separate rain bands which dropped a total of 2.75" at our house. Ironically, the rain fell while I was at the fire station preparing cases and cases of drinks and snacks for the next round of wildfires. That's OK, though, they'll be there whenever we need them. Some portions of our county have received less than a quarter-inch, including our Mesonet station.

I can hear thunder and see very dark clouds to our south, southeast and east, so think that Marshall and Bryan counties in Oklahoma and Cooke and Grayson counties in Texas are receiving torrential rainfall right now. It is my understanding that parts of those areas are currently experiencing flooding, high winds, and some trees and power lines down. Near Kingston and Madill, some areas have had almost 6".

I hope this rain makes it further into southeastern OK where the Keetch-Byram Drought Indexes are in the upper 600s through mid-700s. They need rain in the worst possible way and they need a lot of it.

Since we've had lots of rain here today, I promise not to whine about how dry it is for at least the next two weeks!

I hope everyone else either had rain last night, or gets some today or very soon.

Today's rain with temps in the 80s is so much better than yesterday's hot, dry 99 degrees. And, with any luck at all, maybe some grasshoppers will drown in the torrential rainfall!

Dawn
greenacreslady
16 years ago
That's wonderful, Dawn!!! It's about time you received some nice rainfall down there. It's nice to see so many areas getting a good rain today, but sure do wish it could happen without the floods and damaging wind. It looks like there will be more rain tomorrow too, and I'm hoping we get some of it here in southwest Logan County. We had a light rain for a while last night but not enough to do much good. Most of it has been west, north and east of us yesterday and today.

Suzie
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
16 years ago
Suzie,

In general, we only get rainfall in two 'types' here....too much or too little.

It is odd to have weeks and weeks...maybe as much as 2 months....of drought with little to no rainfall and to have our rainfall way 'below average' and then one or two days of heavy rainfall bring you right back up to average rainfall for the year.

So, in one sense, that deceives people because they look only at the rainfall totals and think we had a good, average year when really we had a horrid drought year interspersed with a couple of flooding rains that corrected the average.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me, though, is how often we end up with an 'average' year after all, even if several months were below average.

I've never seen eastern and southeastern OK as drought-plagued as they have been this year. They'll have to receive real flooding rains to bring them up to average for this year, and I sure don't wish flooding rains upon anyone either.

It is frustrating to be the person who's sitting there watching rain fall all around their place without having it fall upon them. Been there, done that, don't like it a bit.

I hope today's/tonight's forecasted rain drops oodles of rain where needed!

Dawn
jessaka
16 years ago
and we in cherokee county had more rain last night. happy, happy, happy.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
16 years ago
Hooray!!!!