Windy, dry weather to raise wildfire risk across southwestern US to end March

By Brett Rathbun, AccuWeather.com Meteorologist

March 27,2016; 9:32PM,EDT

 

 

Wildfires could redevelop early this week from portions of Arizona and New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas following wildfires from last week.
The threat will include much of the same areas as last week. This includes the cities of Las Cruces and Albuquerque, New Mexico; El Paso, Lubbock and Amarillo, Texas; Guymon, Oklahoma; and Dodge City and Goodland, Kansas.
As a storm strengthens across the Rockies, strong southwest winds, low relative humidity and warm air will be in place across this area, which are the prime ingredients for wildfires to ignite.

"Improperly discarded matches or cigarettes could easily spark a fire due to the dry undergrowth and extremely dry air," AccuWeather Meteorologist Renee Duff said.
Strong winds will cause any fire that forms to spread rapidly, making it difficult for local firefighters to keep the blaze contained.
Cooler air will reach the region during the middle to latter part of the week and shut off the wildfire risk through the first week of April.
Strong winds and warm, dry conditions led to the spread of a few wildfires from Texas to Kansas last week.
The largest fire, the Anderson Creek fire, has burned nearly 400,000 acres in Oklahoma and Kansas, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
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A burn ban is currently in effect across Harper and Cimarron counties in western Oklahoma until mid-April, according to Oklahoma Forestry Services as well as western Texas, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Nearly 900,000 acres have been burned from wildfires so far this year, the most to date since 2006. The Anderson Creek fire has burned more acres than all fires during the first three months of the past three years combined.