Oklahoma Could See More Wildfires This Week

Oklahoma is in the midst of recovery after historic winds and deadly wildfires ripped through the state on Friday, March 14. This week Oklahoma will see multiple days with extreme and critical fire weather due to conditions that could impact current wildfire containment efforts and have the potential to spark new wildfires.

On Monday, March 17, the Oklahoma Forestry Services released its latest update from the March 14 wildfires. The Oklahoma Forestry Services reported that multiple fires are still ongoing and are anywhere from 20 to 90 percent contained. All of the wildfires that sparked on March 14 are ongoing and some fires that had been mostly contained began to flare up over the weekend.

The Oklahoma Forestry Services indicated that state, local and federal crews made significant progress over the weekend with the current wild fires in Oklahoma but the state is "entering another period of extreme fire danger as fuels that have been subjected to very strong drying conditions leading to increasing resistance to control."

Monday has a high probability of sparking new wildfires in Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma Forestry Services stated that the state will experience critical to extreme fire weather through Friday this week, and the conditions will support fire growth on existing wildfires and new wildfire occurrences are expected to impact the heavy reliance on the state's response resources.

Monday is expected to have a high probability of "new large wildfire occurrence." A dry cold front is expected to move through Tuesday that will "present very challenging firefighting conditions coupled with yet another high probability day for Wildfire Outbreak in western and central Oklahoma."

According to the National Weather Service in Norman, temperatures on Monday and Tuesday will warm up into the 80s. Average wind speeds on Monday and Tuesday are expected to reach over 30 miles per hour with wind gusts up to 48 miles per hour. The warm temperatures, dry air and gusty winds will result in extreme fire weather on Monday and Tuesday and continue into critical fire weather through Friday.