Wildfire — Cooper, Missouri

2022-10-22 · Cooper, Missouri

Event narrative

Around 330 pm CDT on October 22nd, a harvesting combine in a crop field started a wildland fire in the small community of Wooldridge, MO (population: 29) in far eastern Cooper County, about 2 miles west of the Missouri River and about 4 miles south of Interstate 70.

Weather conditions on the afternoon of 10/22 were quite conducive for fire ignition and rapid fire spread. Relative humidity from the Boonville, MO AWOS (KVER) showed RH values around 25% around fire ignition time (with a temperature of 86 degrees!) with winds out of the SSE around 25 mph and gusting to 35+ mph. Furthermore, antecedent conditions also favored fire ignition and spread. At the time of the fire, Wooldridge was located within an extreme drought (D3) region per the US Drought Monitor. Back to back hard freezes during the overnight/early morning hours of October 18th and 19th (26 and 25 degrees, respectively, per the Boonville COOP observer) had further cured/dried fuels. The previous afternoon had also featured well above normal temperatures, low RHs, and breezy southerly winds. All of these ingredients combined to set the table for a wildland fire. A RAWS site just about 16 miles ESE of Wooldridge near Ashland, MO was reporting 5% fuel moisture around ignition time (3 pm on 10/22).

The fire spread rapidly to the north following ignition. It destroyed about half the town of Wooldridge, or 23 structures, and then burned northward in the open fields of the Overton Bottoms just west of the Missouri River and just south of Interstate 70. The thick, black smoke produced by the fire shut down Interstate 70 in both directions between Rocheport (Boone County - LSX CWA) and Boonville (Cooper County - EAX CWA) for several hours on the evening of 10/22, with traffic being diverted to alternate routes. Traffic on I-70 was a bit busier than usual for a Saturday evening as the University of Missouri football game had concluded shortly before the smoke shut down the interstate (a substantial percentage of attendees live in the KC metro area). Construction on the new Missouri River I-70 bridge was also halted due to the thick smoke. All told, the fire consumed between 3,000 and 3,500 acres, per estimates from the Cooper County Fire Protection District. 50 agencies/fire departments across the state of Missouri responded to help contain and extinguish the fire. The fire was largely contained by late evening on 10/22, with crews continuing to put out hotspots that redeveloped for several days to follow.

Wider weather episode

On the afternoon of October 22nd many wildfires burned across the region, especially across central Missouri where temperatures reached the mid 80s, winds gusted out of the south southwest to 35 mph, and relative humidity was as low as 25 percent. Furthermore, severe drought conditions and back-to-back hard freezes just days before created very dry and cured fuels. The most noteworthy fire on this day occurred in and around the small community of Wooldridge, MO in far eastern Cooper County.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1058836. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.