Fueled by 40-50 mile per hour winds and aided by 70 degree temperatures and low humidity, multiple fires devoured thousands of acres of grass in Central Nebraska.
Nebraskans watched smoke and flames sweep across the central part of their state on Monday, Feb. 26, 2024. Fueled by 40-50 mile per hour winds and aided by 70 degree temperatures and low humidity, multiple fires devoured thousands of acres of grass, caused the town of Stapleton to evacuate, and destroyed several ranch building sites along with hay supplies. Lincoln and Custer counties declared emergencies due to the Betty’s Way fire, and the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency responded by deploying two National Guard UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters to aid in containing the blaze.
In the Texas Panhandle, over a million acres have burned, one woman lost her life, homes were burned and livestock perished, and at the time of this writing the Smokehouse Creek Fire has become the largest wildfire on record in the state, and is only at 5% containment. In between, in Kansas and Oklahoma, and elsewhere in the Great Plains, unseasonably warm conditions have combined with dry fuel to spark multiple fires this week.
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