“Critical fire weather conditions” exist in parts of Texas, where high winds will mix with extremely dry landscape. The fire weather stretches north all the way to South Dakota, and from Colorado and New Mexico across to Illinois. Florida also faces prime fire conditions, with warnings covering everything in the state south of Daytona Beach.
The risk comes as entire towns try to dig out from under the rubble after dozens of tornadoes ripped across a number of states. Arkansas alone had two F4 tornadoes, the first time since 1997 that has happened, according to the NWS. A number of fires are already burning following the days of severe weather, in particular in eastern Oklahoma.
And all this destruction and fire is happening while we wait, warily, for the warning and tracking systems to start to falter. Huge cuts to NOAA and other critical agencies are putting systems at risk that have helped save innumerable lives over the decades; weather monitoring itself is basically under a red flag warning, ready for a spark burn it down.
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