OK wildfires

[Angie Norris]

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but wildfires are scattered over central OK. I'm watching the fire near the Grady/McLain county border that's easily visible on radar and satellite. Smoke from the fire is drifting over southern Cleveland county, and I've grabbed some pics of some small pyrocumulus. There's also fires near Stillwater and Wellston (that one has a fire warning and evacuation order).

 

[Tim Vasquez]

I'm moving this out to Weather Discussion since it's a weather-related story.

Tim

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Anyone in the OKC or Norman area please poke your head outside and let us know what you see (direction, etc). The TV stations are going nuts over this wildfire story.

Here in eastern Cleveland County near Hwy 9 I was first aware of this around 3:20 pm when I saw amber yellow sunlight coming into our living room. I went outside and saw what looked like dust but it smelled like smoke. I took a drive a little bit west just in case it was in the area, but I saw the plume was 10-20 miles west-southwest, at least, maybe around Noble or south of Blanchard even.

GR2 high-res radar seems to show one fire south of Etowah and another about 10 miles south of Blanchard, and maybe one near Wellston and another southeast of there. I'm not sure if there's anything else going on. Also look like the cold front is rocketing in through Chickasha right now and should be in OKC and Norman within the hour.

Tim

 

[Greg Blumberg]

There is a massive wild fire that might cut off 44 heading to Tulsa. The fire was really, really close to the road when we went through it. Massive amounts of smoke and visibility was incredibly low through the area and you could literally feel the heat through the car. I believe it was mile marker 156. Just warning those chasers out who might be leaving late.

 

[Angie Norris]

Lincoln county EM has just ordered the evacuation of Sparks (southeast of Wellston). I'm counting 4 fires on radar: near Stillwater, 2 in Lincoln county, and the fourth one down near the Grady/McLain county line. Not really seeing much other than really hazy skies to the north and south here in south Norman.
The wind is incredibly gusty (probably the strongest non-convective wind I've ever seen), with gusts into the 40s. Humidity is down to 8%.

 

[Jeff Russell]

I count atleast 11 fires on satellite. From Brownwood, TX up through NCNTRL OK.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/mesoanalysis/frames.php?sector=3

 

[Jason Young]

Ok, just broke off chase to return home due to wild fire's .
Large fire's :

1. West of Davis - I-35 closeing , shelter in Sulphur

2. Ratliff city area

3. Vilma area , shelter in Duncan

4 .Carter county / Love county line . Shelter in Ardmore


This is Very bad down here.

 

[Justin Wiley]

Wildfires yesterday killed at least 1 person and injured several others around the Wichita area. Consequently, the ozone levels went through the roof.

Here's a newsbrief of it. The Metrocam revealed similarities to that of Beijing during the Summer Olympics..

http://www.ksn.com/mediacenter/[email protected]

 

[John Cameron]

At least 5 visible plumes between the Red River and I-20 as of 2:45pm

 

[Angie Norris]

New hotspot is showing up in southeast Cleveland county. I can see some new pyrocumulus to my southeast. Cold front has come through Norman...we now have gusty northwest winds up to 50mph. Channel 9 is reporting I-35 in Murray county near the Arbuckles is closed because of the fires south of here.

 

[Chip Redmond]

Not to steal your thunder John but from the SPC Mesoanalysis satellite image you can see the TX wildfire's smoke being wrapped up into the line of convection in E OK. It may cause some visibility problems of the storms and will be interesting to see how it interacts with them too.

Chip

 

[Karla Dorman]

7:17 P.M. - Not just Oklahoma, NorthWest and NorthCentral Texas, too: looking at a vivid orange sky with blood red sun, hazed over with smoke from wildfires and dust to the West and NorthWest. One large fire in Bowie caused the evacuation of a school; other communities being warned. As far as I know, no injuries or deaths, firefighters have their hands full trying to contain the explosive development of fire. Relaxing winds after sunset may help.

You can smell the smoke in the air and feel it burning eyes to red. Will be uplinking a video I shot of the sunset.

 

[Jacob Ferden]

MAJOR wildfire issues east side of OKC. Visibility near zero on I-40 between Shawnee and Midwest City. Just a heads up to those who may also return early.

 

[Chris Hayes]

I'm watching Channel 9 streaming and a fire marshall said that there's probably been 100+ homes burnt in the Midwest City fire. Anyone have any statistics on the worst fires in Oklahoma history? I'd say today has to be one of the worst fire days in the state's history.

 

[Kristi Branstetter]

That's sad about the homes in Midwest City OK.

Kristi