Wildfire outbreak in the Southern Plains amid extreme winds

AccuWeather

Sustained powerful winds are reducing visibility across the Plains and leading to a dangerous situation as wildfires explode in size on the afternoon of March 14. But that's not the only threat in store over the coming days.

Transcript

00:00Accuweather Chief Meteorologist John Porter joins us right now to sort things out.

00:03And John, this is a very dangerous ongoing situation.

00:08This is a very dangerous situation.

00:10It's why we called this yesterday a potentially historic wildfire risk and blowing dust situation

00:17across the Southern Plains.

00:18Really a wildfire outbreak occurring at this hour across Oklahoma and portions of Kansas

00:25with numerous fires developing, some of them impacting communities.

00:29Please be aware of any evacuation notices that are issued for your community and move

00:33fast if you receive that as additional fires are breaking out with a combination of this

00:38gusty wind, wind gusts 40 to 80 miles per hour and very dry conditions that's resulting

00:44in the very serious wildfire risk.

00:46And of course, also we're dealing with a big time blowing dust situation as well, Damian.

00:51All right, John, as you look at the live wind gusts here across the Southern Plains, one

00:55of the things that we were discussing earlier was that one of the reasons why this is going

00:59to be such a dangerous situation is that there was really no lead up to this.

01:03It wasn't like earlier this week we had a level one and then a level two and then now

01:07we're at a level four.

01:08No, it was just like today was the very first day and it's already at an extreme level.

01:14Big wind very quickly and look at these wind gusts.

01:16These are not thunderstorm related wind gusts.

01:19This is 64 mile an hour gust in Oklahoma City, 67 in Lubbock at this hour.

01:25Notice how tight those lines are.

01:26There's all kinds of screaming wind coming in from West Texas up in Oklahoma and that

01:31dust is now going to be heading toward the Dallas area.

01:34Expect reduced visibility in the Dallas metroplex during the evening commute.

01:39That's going to lead to some dangerous travel here in some spots with the visibility reduced

01:43below one mile in some areas.

01:45And you were talking about the live wind gusts there, John, and one of the most dangerous

01:49things is it's not just like a you get one wind gust and then winds die back down to

01:53like 20, 30 miles an hour.

01:55These winds have been sustained at over 60 miles an hour for majority of these regions.

02:00Great point.

02:01That's going to be going on for hours and hours and that's what's really leading to

02:03all that dust being lofted and traveling eastbound.

02:07So again, look out from Dallas down toward Austin and then up toward Oklahoma City.

02:13Some of this dust may get lofted in the air all the way up to Missouri and maybe even

02:17as far as Chicago first thing tomorrow morning, reducing air quality in some places.

02:21So a very unusual setup and a dangerous one.

02:25All right, John.

02:26So now we're going to focus primarily on the risk of severe weather as we head into Sunday

02:29because not only are we tracking severe weather Friday, Saturday, Sunday's overall outlook

02:34looks like it could be a dangerous one as well.

02:37Another very active day on Sunday.

02:38The overall scope of the severe weather risk will be reduced as compared to the severe

02:44weather that we're expecting in the previous days, but still a dangerous situation on Sunday

02:49as the storm system slowly moves to the East Coast risk for localized thunderstorm wind

02:54damage all the way from parts of Pennsylvania and near New York City all the way southbound

02:59to North Florida, including Washington, D.C. and the Carolinas.

03:03The greatest risk for severe weather will be from about Virginia Beach through Raleigh

03:07down toward Augusta and some of these thunderstorms are going to contain wind gusts of 55 to 65

03:14miles per hour and also there will be a risk for some widely separated tornadoes as well.

03:19Absolutely.

03:20And John, one of the things we're definitely going to be watching out for is the risk of

03:23flooding rainfall here as we head throughout Sunday.

03:26That's a big concern for us as well because the storm system is going to be slow moving.

03:30That means persistent downpours over the same areas that can result in some significant

03:36flash flooding concerns in some spots.

03:38In some areas the rain is needed, but if it comes too fast and too furious, watch for

03:43those flash flooding concerns, especially in areas near creeks and streams and also

03:49those low lying areas that can be particularly susceptible to flash flooding.

03:54And straight line winds are also going to be an issue as well, John, so go ahead and

03:56break that down for us.

03:57Well, we're going to be expecting more wind here, gusts 40 to 50 miles per hour across

04:03the eastern seaboard, some localized power outages and slowed travel at the airports

04:07and on the roads.

04:08All right, AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist John Porter, thank you so much for your insight.

04:12We'll check in with you coming up.

04:13Thanks.

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