{"id":40908,"date":"2022-04-29T14:00:38","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T20:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dry-southwest-braces-for-stiffer-winds-epic-fire-danger\/"},"modified":"2022-04-29T20:00:38","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T20:00:38","slug":"dry-southwest-braces-for-stiffer-winds-epic-fire-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dry-southwest-braces-for-stiffer-winds-epic-fire-danger\/","title":{"rendered":"Dry Southwest braces for stiffer winds, \u2018epic\u2019 fire danger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"In
In this photo released by the U.S. Forest Service, aircraft known as \u201csuper scoopers\u201d battle the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon Fires in the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. Firefighters have been making significant progress on the biggest wildfires burning unusually hot and fast for this time of year in the western U.S. But forecasters from the Southwest to the southern High Plains are warning of the return the next two days of the same gusty winds and critical fire conditions that sent wildland blazes racing across the landscape last week. (J. Michael Johnson\/U.S. Forest Service via AP)<\/span>J. Michael Johnson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ALBUQUERQUE \u2013 Thousands of firefighters continued to slow the advance of destructive wildfires in the Southwestern U.S., but officials warned they were bracing for the return Friday of the same dangerous conditions that quickly spread the wind-fueled blazes a week ago.<\/p>\n

At least 166 homes have been destroyed in one rural county in northeast New Mexico since the biggest fire currently burning in the U.S. started racing through small towns east and northeast of Santa Fe on April 22, the local sheriff said.<\/p>\n

Winds gusting up to 50 mph were forecast Friday in the drought-stricken region. One expert said it’s a recipe for disaster on the wildlands where some timber has a fuel moisture drier than kiln-dried wood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very, very dangerous fire day tomorrow,\u201d fire behavior specialist Stewart Turner said at a briefing Thursday night on the edge of the Santa Fe National Forest in Las Vegas, New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike we saw last Friday, epic fire behavior,\u201d Turner said. \u201cIt\u2019s a day that as a firefighter, we\u2019ll write about, we\u2019ll read studies about. It\u2019s going to be a big fire day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In
In this photo released by the U.S. Forest Service, an aircraft known as a "super scooper\u201d battles the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon Fires in the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico on Thursday, April 28, 2022. Firefighters have been making significant progress on the biggest wildfires burning unusually hot and fast for this time of year in the western U.S. But forecasters from the Southwest to the southern High Plains are warning of the return the next two days of the same gusty winds and critical fire conditions that sent wildland blazes racing across the landscape last week. (J. Michael Johnson\/U.S. Forest Service via AP)<\/span>J. Michael Johnson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A swath of the country stretching from New Mexico and Colorado to Kansas and the Texas panhandle is expected to be hit the hardest by the return of the bad firefighting weather that has generated unusually hot and fast-moving fires for this time of year, forecasters warned.<\/p>\n

Red flag warnings for extreme fire danger were in place Friday for nearly all of New Mexico and parts of Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.<\/p>\n

The expected high winds will likely ground firefighting aircraft in some areas, officials said.<\/p>\n

More than 3,000 firefighters were battling fires in Arizona and New Mexico on Friday \u2013 about half of those in northeast New Mexico, where more than 187 square miles of mostly timber and brush has been charred.<\/p>\n

They focused Thursday on preventing it from moving into the rural New Mexico community of Ledoux. That meant bolstering fire lines and sending in crews tasked with protecting structures.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat progress again today,\u201d incident commander Carl Schwope said Thursday night. But \u201ctomorrow has the potential to be a very destructive day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be chaotic if anything close to what happened (last) Friday occurs,\u201d said operations chief Jayson Coil.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Chris Lopez, of New Mexico\u2019s Miguel County, confirmed for the first time Thursday night the fire there has destroyed at least 166 homes, 108 outbuildings and three commercial buildings. He joined authorities in neighboring Mora County in pleading with residents to pay close attention Friday to sudden changes in closures and evacuation orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cFalling trees, possibly falling power lines, that\u2019s the kind of winds we’re looking at,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n

Turner, the fire behavior specialist, said the gusty winds are only part of the problem. He said moisture levels in downed logs and woody debris are \u201cextremely dry\u201d \u2013 just 2% in small twigs, pine needles and grasses that \u201cactually carry a forest fire across the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moisture in a small log \u201cthe size of a 4-by-4 post you buy at the lumber store … are coming down to 8%,\u201d he said. \u201cKiln-dry is 12%. So out there, that\u2019s drying to what a kiln would do.\u201d<\/p>\n

In northern Arizona, authorities downgraded some evacuation orders at a fire that has destroyed at least 30 homes near Flagstaff. It’s now estimated to be 43% contained. Another fire 10 miles south of the community of Prescott was 23% contained, but officials at both blazes warned of worsening conditions expected Friday.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, one national wildfire management incident team continued to oversee a large prairie fire in Nebraska, where more than 200 firefighters were battling a blaze that has been burning since last week. 44024 acres.<\/p>\n

About 68 square miles of mostly grasses and farmland have been blackened near Nebraska’s state line with Kansas. Several homes were destroyed and at least one person was killed. That fire was 97% contained Friday.<\/p>\n

Sonner reported from Reno, Nevada. Associated Press writers Paul Davenport in Phoenix and Margery A. Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

this photo released by the U.S. Forest Service, aircraft known as \u201csuper scoopers\u201d battle the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon Fires in the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. Firefighters have been making significant progress on the biggest wildfires burning unusually hot and fast for this time of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40908"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}