A Turbulent Spring: Wildfires, Blowing Dust, and High Winds
Travis Bateman
Farmer Staff Writer
The spring season has been an absolute roller coaster in terms of weather so far with this past week being the most interesting.
Dry conditions across the region continue to concern landowners, farmers, ranchers, and the fire service with some moisture received in the latter part of the week that arrived on Thursday, though it wasn’t much at all.
But that wasn’t before the first half of the week brought temperatures as high as 86 degrees in Watford City, winds with constant gusts over 25 miles per hour, and several wildland fires throughout the Inland Empire and beyond.
A large wildland fire broke out along the North Dakota and Montana state line on Tuesday evening that sent a towering plume of gray smoke over central McKenzie County amidst calm skies and alarmed many in the area as there was no official alert sent out by any public safety officials from Richland County. Late in the evening, local newspapers posted about the blaze and provided relief to residents that there wasn’t a greater threat of flames roaring across the area.
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