With dry weather continuing and strong winds expected, the National Weather Service in North Platte has issued a critical Red Flag Warning for western and north-central Nebraska today, February 17, with an extremely critical area in portions of western Nebraska and the southern Sandhills.
A Particularly Dangerous Situation, Red Flag Warning is issued when critical fire weather conditions are occurring. This includes warm, dry weather and gusty winds. With ongoing dry weather and strong winds predicted for Tuesday, the potential is strong for any fires that do start to quickly expand in area and intensity.
The NWS notes that designating an “extremely critical” area of fire danger is very rare. The last time the NWS issued such a dire fire weather alert was in April of 2015.
With such a high fire danger around the area, residents are cautioned against any burning. The Nebraska Forest Service provides several additional tips to avoid sparking a fire. These include ensuring that chains on trailers do not drag, which may create sparks, and avoiding parking vehicles on dry vegetation, as hot engine and exhaust parts may also cause a fire to start.
With similar conditions expected again, the NWS is tracking an elevated fire concern for Wednesday, February 18. Be sure to stay tuned to KCNI/KBBN and SandhillsExpress.com where we will keep you up-to-date on the latest weather conditions and alerts.
High winds and low humidity result in critical fire danger (Click to enlarge)
