High Plains Burning Up as Record Heat Wave Bakes Area

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A wildfire burns through a grove of Red Cedar trees as firefighters continued to work on containing the blaze on Monday, May 5, 2014, in Guthrie, Okla.

Image: Nick Oxford/Associated Press

By Andrew Freedman2014-05-05 20:36:40 UTC

A blistering heat wave has set in across the drought-scorched Plains, with all-time record high temperatures set in Kansas and Oklahoma during the past few days. The hot, dry weather there has sparked deadly wildfires, and it contrasts sharply with the deluge that recently struck the Gulf Coast, as well as the cooler-than-average spring in the Midwest and Northeast, where 19% of the Great Lakes are still covered in ice.

In Wichita, Kansas, the temperature hit 102 degrees Fahrenheit on May 4, which broke the record for the earliest 100 degree or higher temperature on record there, beating the old record of May 9. Records in Wichita date back to 1888. Wichita has had its driest start to the year since the Dust Bowl in 1936, with just 2.01 inches of rain falling between January 1 and April 30.

See also: Tornadoes, Dust Storms and Floods: What the Hell Happened This Week?

Drought conditions are contributing to the early heat wave, since more of the sun's energy can go toward heating the ground and air when soils are dry compared to when they are wet, which diverts some incoming solar energy to evaporation.

According to the National Weather Service, if Wichita receives less than 0.36 inches of rain through May 8, it will officially be the driest start to a calendar year since records began, beating the Dust Bowl era when towering clouds of dust swept across the Plains, as a result of poor land management practices and a punishing multiyear drought.

Here's how Oklahoma state climatologist Gary McManus described the conditions in Oklahoma in an online note on May 5, which was first reported by the Capital Weather Gang blog: "Oklahoma is burning, both literally and figuratively, as a combination of drought, record heat, high winds and low relative humidity created the perfect wildfire conditions yesterday."

Departure from average of vegetation "greenness" for this time of year. The orange and yellow colors show areas where vegetation is drier, and less green, than average.

Image: Oklahoma State Climatologist Office

One wildfire in Guthrie killed one person who refused to evacuate, and destroyed numerous properties. Other fires were visible from weather satellites orbiting the Earth. The National Weather Service in Wichita warned that ideal conditions for rapidly spreading grassland fires would continue through midweek, as high heat, low humidity, and high winds combine with record high temperatures to create a tinderbox on the prairie.

Fire weather alerts were also posted across seven other states in addition to Oklahoma, as an unusually warm and dry air mass settles in across the Plains and Southwest ahead of an approaching storm system.

"Lots of records fell where the drought is at its worst across western and northern Oklahoma," McManus said.

"Of course it doesn't help that the intensifying drought has kept most of the vegetation in a winter-like state, or more apt to the warm season conditions, like August. 'Maugust?' Could also have been termed 'Muly,' I guess," he continued, indicating how unusual the weather is for May. "With so much dormant and dead vegetation leftover from winter, it still seemed like late summer to me."

McManus did not have much encouraging news for Oklahomans who are anxiously eyeing the rain gauge as the dry summer season approaches.

"Once again, we're in a horse race to the summer season when Mother Nature gives us that lovely mid-to-upper level ridge of high pressure that shuts off our rain and brings us a classic Oklahoma mid-June through mid-September Easy Bake Oven period. From now until mid-June is normally our wettest time of the year," he said.

As reiterated by a report being released by the Obama administration on Tuesday, climate studies show that heat waves have already increased in their intensity and duration in many parts of the world, and this trend is expected to continue due to the buildup in manmade greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Global warming is also expected to accentuate the differences between those areas that have an excess of precipitation and areas affected by drought.

Topics: Climate, Kansas, oklahoma, record heat, U.S., US & World, wildfire