AJ Dome
The Manhattan Mercury, Kan.
(MCT)
2月24-Controlled燃烧在莱利是不允许的County right now as the fire danger increases while drought conditions persist.
Riley County office assistant Lacey Jones said the county is not allowing controlled burns because of the dry conditions. She said Riley County has about 1,000 permits at the moment, and that a lot of people burn brush piles on their property this time of year. She said the county operates on a different system for determining good days for controlled burns.
“We have a call-in system,” Jones said. “When a person gets a permit, they call us, and we let them know if it’s okay to burn for that day.”
Jones is in charge of issuing and renewing burn permits for the county. She said Riley County utilizes a digital alert system to inform people who are signed up for the service of the daily fire danger and if they can or cannot burn. The number of people who apply for a burn permit increases in March and April, as more landowners use fire to clear their pastures.
All private fires are being put on hold, however, as drought conditions worsen. KSU assistant meteorologist and Kansas Mesonet manager Chip Redmond released the drought update for Feb. 9-15 last week. He said in his update that dry conditions are expected for west and central Kansas over the next three months, with warmer-than-average temperatures statewide.
Northeast Kansas, including Manhattan, experienced very little changes in local drought conditions week to week. Redmond said Manhattan is classified as being “close to abnormally dry,” as highlighted by the U.S. Drought Monitor’s most recent map. The swath of abnormal dryness stretches south into the Flint Hills, with more severe drought conditions noted in central Kansas. Extreme drought conditions persist in the southwest corner of the state, with severe or worse drought conditions covering 26% of Kansas.
The increasing drought, coupled with warming temperatures, leads to potentially dangerous fire weather conditions. Redmond, who is also a volunteer wildland firefighter, said March and early April are “bullseyes” for the fire season in Kansas.
“A very dry February for most of the state, outside of the southeast corner, has really combined with that prolonged dryness and warmth from December,” Redmond said. “We’re primed for a very active to above-normal fire season in Kansas.”
Redmond also noted a significant lack of moisture so far for 2022. He said in his report that only “very, very light scattered sprinkles occurred” for that Feb. 9-15 timeframe. No measurable snowfall was indicated that week, but 0.07 inches of precipitation fell on Feb. 9 in rural Rawlins County in far northwest Kansas, marking the maximum daily amount in the state for the year so far.
Redmond said for the last 180 days, Manhattan is 1 to 2 inches below the normal precipitation amount, but just to the west, Clay Center is 5 inches below normal.
“Clay Center had 1.75 inches of rain over the last four months,” Redmond said. “That’s nothing. Manhattan, meanwhile, has had 3.89 inches of precipitation for the same time period.”
Redmond said temps were much warmer than normal for the week of Feb. 9-15. The warmest temperature for that timeframe was 71 degrees, measured at multiple locations across Kansas. On the other end of the spectrum, the coldest temp measured for that week was in Scandia in Republic County in north-central Kansas, at 1.5 degrees.
Northeast Kansas, including Manhattan, was the region that saw the coldest average temperature for that week, at 34.6 degrees. Redmond said that was 3.7 degrees above normal for this time of year.
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