Wildfire — Beaver, Oklahoma

2024-02-27 to 2024-02-29 · Beaver, Oklahoma

Event narrative

The cause of this fire was unknown. Fire was located just northeast of Slapout, OK and burned 26,020 acres and continued to remain active through March 8th. Estimated costs of the fire from the Forestry Service were around $323,000. Damage estimations from the fire from the OSU Extension Service included the loss of 504 head of cattle, 35,000 bales of hay, 3 occupied houses and 1 unoccupied house, 12 barns and 1 solar array. This is approximately 2.3% of pastureland in the county that was temporarily removed from production, and 7.4% of the county cow inventory that either perished in the fire or was subsequently culled or euthanized due to injury. Estimated losses based on this information sum to a total of $8.73 million in damages, or $335 per burned acre.

Estimated cattle industry losses in Beaver County include $1.62 million in fencing costs. This includes damaged fence removal ($49 thousand) and replacement ($1.4 million) for 70% of burned pastures and fence repair ($179,000) for the remaining 30% of burned pastures. Emergency feeding ($87,000), cattle injury assessment and treatment ($24,000), and temporarily holding cattle on emergency grazing such as CRP land while pastures recuperate ($858,000) bring the cost of treating and maintaining displaced cattle to $969,000. The value of cattle who perished in the fire or had to be euthanized due to injury was estimated as $1 million, with an additional $1 million in market value loss for cows that were culled due to fire injury. Carcass disposal was estimated at $63,000. In addition, the hay that was lost in the fire was valued at $2.35 million. A total of $1.7 million in structures lost was estimated.

Wider weather episode

A good growing season through spring/summer 2023 led to decent fuel loading, compared to the previous couple of years, before vegetation went into winter dormancy. Dormant fuels and two weeks without precipitation leading into February 26th provided a very combustible environment when combined with abnormally warm temperatures (record breaking) and high winds on Monday, February 26th. An upper level system first brought strong winds on Monday with sustained winds peaking between 25 and 39 mph out of the west. Wind gusts peaked around 55 mph with some locations briefly gusting up to 58 to 62 mph. Not only were the winds strong but the relative humidity values also dropped to 12 to 18 percent. These conditions with the dormant and dry state of vegetation contributed to some large wildfires on the 26th. Especially when these fires occurred in rough terrain leading to efforts to contain the fires being of little to no gain. These fires continued through the night with little recovery in relative humidity and short lived reduced winds.

Going into the morning of the 27th west to southwest winds quickly picked back up into the 25 to 35 mph range with gusts quickly exceeding 58 mph in the late morning hours before noon. Frequent gusts of 58 to 64 mph soon picked up into the 65 to 70 mph range during the afternoon of the 27th. Some areas saw sustained winds top out in the 40 to 45 mph range for a few hours as well. With temperatures starting out in the 50s on the morning of the 27th, afternoon temperatures were back in the 70s in no time. Despite afternoon temperatures a few degrees cooler than the day before on the 26th, relative humidity values fell into the 12 to 15 percent range. This did not help with ongoing fires and also contributed to a few new fires across the combined Panhandles, some of which merged with one another turning into megafires. The same system contributing to the high winds also pushed a cold front into the area from the north. Fires that once were moving from west to east soon started to move from north to south behind the front. Winds behind the front continued to blow in the 25 to 35 mph range and gusting 40 to 50 mph. Communities that were initially on the right flank of the fire, out of harm's way, soon found themselves on the forward flank.

While the largest and most significant wildfires occurred in Texas, Oklahoma also experienced significant wildfires during this event. Wildfires developed in both Texas and Beaver counties. The wildfire in Beaver County resulted in extensive damage to cattle and property.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1164966. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.