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Watches, warnings everywhere

2015 has been interesting. We welcomed in the New Year with an ice jam which had the potential to create great damage and evacuations, but fortunately a temperature increase during the second night, to -15, reversed the growth of the jam and the day was saved. Memorial Day weekend it rained…and rained and rained. Flash Flood Warnings were issued from both sides of our county, and several occurred. The heavy rains which were seen here in Hot Springs County were also seen in the Wind River high country, soaking into the snowpack. Predictions for runoff flows into Boysen had to be thrown out and re-calculated. Boysen filled quickly. Flood pool storage was utilized, and outflows down river to our county reached 7500 cubic feet a second. At the same time, we began seeing almost daily, severe thunderstorms. Even Anchor Dam filled and there was conversation of having to increase spillway flows down Owl Creek which could have created flood conditions for many living along that drainage. The storms produced tornado warnings, torrential downpours, hail and lightning. A couple storms with great potential for damage barely missed Thermopolis.

Then, just like that, it was over. And it all dried out. And now here we are, with prime conditions for wildfires and Riverton NWS issuing Red Flag Fire Warnings almost daily.

I asked my friend Kelly Allen, Meteorologist, Fire Weather and Decision Support Services Program Manager in Riverton, for a meteorological opinion on current fire conditions as we head into September. “We’re in that time of year where weather systems are fighting for real estate in the Intermountain West.” Kelly wrote. “When the atmosphere is in this much turmoil, the weather can turn on a dime. It can be extremely dry and windy for a few hours, and then you get a dry thunderstorm coming off of the mountains moving in to start natural fires, followed by a sudden wind shift with a cold front. The last thing our fire fighters need is to chase after human caused fires! Now that the nights are getting longer and we have a more pronounced surface inversion in the mornings, the day can begin with calm winds and sunny skies. Once that atmospheric lid breaks however, down comes the wind from aloft and there goes your fire. Even the most seasoned professionals have a hard time catching a wind-driven fire with enough dry vegetation to go on for miles. We urge people to be extra vigilant as just about any spark could easily become a wildfire in the hot, dry, windy and stormy conditions we expect this week.”

Please, Hot Springs County, if you must burn trash, do so between 6-8 a.m. in a barrel with 10 feet of dirt in all directions. Then, make sure it is out.

September is typically a beautiful month. But it is a warm month, and dry, and often windy. Fire season is not over. Please be careful every day, but especially those days when our expert friends at the National Weather Service in Riverton issue Red Flag Fire Warnings.

 

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