Well, it hit 93 degrees here today. There are fires all around the state, 11 in the Arbuckle mountain area alone. Many more all around. We saw smoke from a nearby fire earlier today...

My peach and cherry trees have been fooled into blooming already...
I'm sick and tired of radical weather. As I'm sure lots of you are...but this is ridiculous for March 1!

Are the fires ever going to stop for good. This is so terrible.

I agree 93* and it is only March 1st.

It hit 100 in my little hotbox today and that was with the sash opened 8".

I did plant onions, shallots, and garlic last weekend, and plan on planting brussels sprouts, potatoes (Yukon Gold) and peas this weekend.

And my plum tree is in full bloom!!

We were in the 70's today and in full bloom. I think we're expecting cold weather next week though.

Sheri...I think we've had 1/10 inch of precip. all year...And 14 inches below average as of Dec. 31.
This is a mess!

Oh my. Nature is against you.

Amigatec...I don't know whether to plant tomatoes or lettuce! Crazy, crazy!

Dave, that is not good. I do not like hearing of even more fires in your already devestated area. Will be praying for everyone in the hot zones.

I saw on the news earlier (Weather Channel) about how hot it was in Oklahoma today...and about the fires.
Pretty sad. I hate to see all those fires.

Triss, I think you're right. Prayer is the only thing that will help this mess.

Thanks for the prayers...it's still 80 something, supposed to get to 40 overnight...

gardening in Oklahoma is SUCH a challenge!

Pat,Dave saw all your fires on the news. Looks like the whole state is on fire. We got to 92 today but areas around us got to 98. I think one was Coleman, burning all around Poolville again. With the rain we had Friday and Saturday you would think would help has not even slowed them down and we had 2 inch's more then you got . Don't believe you even got a cloud over the weekend. News said from OKC to Texas border was almost like one fire showed whole towns going up.
Jimmy

I buy some seed from Poolville TX, I hope it didn't burn there seed crops!!

Channel 6 says it will 35 tonight.

I just hope my cool weather crops make it.

Dave keep safe.

I am so confused this year on everyones weather. It seems mother nature has been out of whack. We've had rain in January and February, that has never happened before. Great grandparents can't remember it ever happening. It did give our 10 feet of snow a bit of a melting though.

Praying for rain for you now.

Pat I will try and find out about the seed crops on channel 5 they said about everything has burned and was trying to save the town. will try and call my cousin there lines were out yesterday.
Jimmy

Radio just said the Oklahoma police have arrested one arsonist and looking for another that set the fires yesterday. Had to evacuate schools and a Nursing home. Hope when they catch the other one they give them the max under law.
Jimmy

stay safe dave.
penny

The name of the place is Willhite Seed.

I haven't ordered from them yet, but was getting an order together.

We slept with the windows open all night. I thought we'd have to use the AC, but we didn't. I smelled smoke about 5 a.m., but thankfully never saw flames. They say it will hit 65 today, 30 degrees cooler than yesterday, but still above normal!

I just saw on the news that 55 buildings burned in the southern fires, and 11,000 acres. At least some of those fires thanks to the arsonists. One firefighter rushed to OKC in critical condition with burns. I hope those bums never get to see the light of day!

That is almost unbelievable, isn't it?
That is happening here as well, but our temps are going from 30 to 60 and not 60 to 90 like you all are dealing with.

...and I just can't understand why people set fires on purpose. I always thought that arsonists should get punished way more than they do...if you can catch them.


Wow...that's where I used to order all my watermelon seeds many years ago. The big watermelon knife I carry in my purse says "Willhite Seed Company" on it.

Norman, you just never know when you're going to be called upon to cut a watermelon in half.

Yep Willhite is a big melon seed seller.

Cindy...I'll have to run down and get a BIG watermellow knife to carry in my purse, It's probably the only thing I don't have in my purse

Pat I know them well lines are still down can't get hold of anyone there. will let you know. I think everyone buys their seeds from Willhite. Cindy we use to wear them in sheaths on our belts when we worked in the melon fields in New Mexico as well as down in Durango,Durango Mexico so just figures you would carry one in your purse my mother did. Beside that you can use it on tobacco plants also.
Jimmy

I just saw on the news where firefighters were killed where Norman lives...
...just caught the end of it.

My FIL buys most of his seed from Willhite, I will have to tell him about the fire.

Yea and some of these were arson, at least one was from a cigarette butt.

$250 fine for throwing a butt out the window of your car.

not near enough in states with the fire...

praying for you all, was thinking about you yesterday!

The fine for throwing burning material from a car in Washington is $1050.00

I'll keep praying for you.

I hadn't heard about the firefighters being killed. They arrested one suspect already and are looking for another. I wonder if these jokers still think it's funny when people die.
We had slight drizzle yesterday, but no accumulation. Fire danger will be lower until next week due to less wind and cooler temps, but all temps will be around 70 for next 7 days.

I think we had about 5 drops on rain yesterday, just enough to mess up your windshield.


I sure wish it would rain, we can't even BBQ outside, and I love cooking on the grill.

Isn't it ironic that we're having gorgeous BBQ weather, and we can't BBQ? Although I think gas grills are alright.

Gas grills are ok but charcoal is out. I did grill on New Years day, just before the ban on grilling.

I am getting good at using the grill plate on the stove in the house.

I use a Hamilton Beach George-Foreman-clone.

I have a couple of George Foreman grills, but I like my cast iron grill plate the best.

It took a bit to get used to it, and I finally got it seasoned good.

You getting any sprinkles today, Pat?

Yep just enough to wet the ground.

I did go out and do some planting.

wet is good!

40% chance today, but so far nothing!!!

i'm praying...

Well we didn't get a drop of rain today, 30% to 40% chance through Wed.

Well we had an arson fire just a few miles from the house today. Burnt 1 building and 6000 acres, firetrucks are still fighting it.

I think the totals now are around 300 buildings burnt, another 570 damaged, and over 600,000 acres burnt.

And it's not over yet.

Dang, Pat...It's just getting so routine that they do'nt even report on it anymore! I heard nothing about fires today, although we were at extreme levels of fire danger!

This one was about 4 miles from the house.

We have a 90% chance of rain for Wed night, we sure need it.

You're kidding! We've got a 60% chance for "scattered showers" Wednesday night...translation, nothing here! We're how far apart, as the crow flies, 60 miles? 80?

The eastern half of the state is forecast for rain, and possibly hail. Althou I don't think we will have hail.

Might as well have hail. Just one more extreme!

Are these fires close to Broken bow?? My son says they are some where around there...

Dave and Pat, keeping you in my thoughts and prayers and hoping for lots of rain. Please keep safe. I am so saddened to think of all the loss around you.

There may have been, I was more worried about the one outside of town. If you want to look up Haskell OK on a map, it is about half-way between Tulsa and Muskogee.

Thank you, Tamara...and all the rest of you who're keeping us in your thoughts.
The sad thing besides the fire damage is the damage the drought has done. Reservoirs are drying up, water quality is getting poor, wells are going dry...Ranchers are selling off their cattle because their ponds have dried up. We stocked 2 ponds 2 years ago with fish...1 pond is totally dry now.
The wheat farmers may not have crops this year, and lots of trees and all sorts of plants will surely die. This is just awful.

The fire yesterday burnt dozens of bales of hay, hay is already in short supply, so this is even worst.

Dave , Pat you now have another extreme you are under Thundersorm and Toronado warnings from just south of Moore covers 18 counties until 10:00 pm. We have T'storms and hail warnings here. Hope you as well as us get enough rain to do some good without the hail and Tornados. Praying for you here in Texas.
Jimmy

I think our Tornado watch is good until 8:00 PM.

Had a few drops of rain coming home from work today, and it is making a lot of noise outside.

Hope you get a lot more drops all together and nothing else last the night and tomorrow.
Jimmy

I hope we get a inch or two, I would like to fire up the BBQ grill.

So much for our rain and thunderstorms what little rain we got lasted one minute. Saw a little lightening had very high winds blowing roofs off buildings and whipping the fires around. Hope you faired better. We are still under Tornado watch.
Jimmy

It rained most of the night ans it still is raining a little, it started about 1 am. I hadn't heard thunder in so long I forgot what it sounded like.

Muskogee did get a some hail. Haven't seem the weather report to know how much we got.

We had thunder last week, Tuesday or Wednesday, but no rain! This morning around 4, I think, we woke up to a gentle rain. What a great sound! We got all of 2 tenths of an inch...not enough to do much of anything, but welcome, anyway!

We had vertical wind shear snap ten or fifteen telephone poles in a row off at The Hermitage and set fire to the fields. It also knocked out power to 3/4 of the town of Hermitage, TN where I lived.power went off at my house about 10 times, knocking my computer out, but luckily not bad,.

I heard there were tornadoes in Arkansas and possibly elsewhere yesterday...I didn't hear how bad the damage was.
Even though there was some rain in much of Oklahoma this week, we're still at red flag fire danger level everywhere but Tulsa and east...

I got tired of the power failures I bought a UPS (Battery Backup) for mine, I have the firewall, modem, switch, and my PC on it.

The power here goes out often, usually no more than a few seconds, just enough to mess up the clocks.

We got some more rain late last night, and it is raining right now. I don't know how much we have gotten but any rain is good!!

YOu have got to be kidding, Pat. It was cloudy earlier, and even smelled like rain, but it's sunny and 80 degrees now. Not a hint of rain.
I have a feeling it could be next fall before they lift the burn ban...so much for firing up your grill.

ugh... well, pat got rain dave didn't maybe the whole state needs rain? that's what i'm praying for anyway...

I was surprized by the rain myself, we did have about a 40% chance, so I didn't worry about it to much.

We may be getting some more rain this evening, we have Tornado warnings. We are right on the edge, it is moving over Tulsa right now. Tulsa is getting nickel sized hail.

For those that are not familar with Tornados, they move NE and the tornado is normally on the S corner of the storm. So that puts us in a bad spot the storm will pass by on the north side of town.

So it may be a stormy night.

Also:

According to a local OKC television station, KOCO Channel 5, Altus AFB is being evacuated, due to a wildfire. Power to the base has been turned off. That's all that is being reported as of now.

If it ain't one thing it's another!!!