Grass fire in progress, (Brian Neben, Courtesy)
KEARNEY — Due to the lack of rainfall, dry conditions and harvest ongoing, the Nebraska Forest Service is warning of high fire danger over the weekend across the state.
Elevated fire weather conditions are expected across central, northern and western Nebraska through the weekend.
The Forest Service asks residents to refrain from parking hot machinery on tall grass and vegetation to avoid sparking fires.
“Dry fuels and low afternoon relative humidity values across the region are resulting in an increasing fire weather threat, with the addition of strong north winds Monday afternoon likely resulting in near-critical fire weather concerns across at least parts of the local area,” the National Weather Service – Hastings noted in a forecast discussion.
There will be more zonal flow across the central Plains and there are few disturbances and surface moisture will be lacking, resulting in dry weather continuing through the first full week of October.
The next possible precipitation chances could be around Oct. 10 and even this looks questionable, according to NWS Hastings.
Drought conditions have been creeping back into Nebraska with a large swath of abnormally dry conditions largely south of the Platte River.
As for the Tri-City area, Buffalo County is drought free, Hall County only has abnormally dry conditions in the extreme south and Adams County is abnormally dry, save for a swath of moderate drought, D1, conditions in the southeast.
“Aside from Kansas, where rainfall provided widespread drought relief, most of the High Plains experienced unchanged or worsening drought conditions. On September 22, topsoil moisture rated very short to short ranged from 29% in North Dakota to 84% in Wyoming, with values also above 50% in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska,” per the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Nebraska drought conditions as of Sept. 24, (U.S. Drought Monitor, Courtesy)
