Hi friends,
Well this weekend has been pretty eventful, but not of the kind you’d want. You may have seen on the news that there are several grass fires burning across Oklahoma right now— the largest fire my county has ever seen has been burning for at least three days and yesterday things got pretty intense.
Several communities, including two good-sized towns, were given a mandatory evacuation and hundreds of acres and many homes have now gone up in flames. Yesterday the sky to the west was a strange and unnerving billow of gray and yellow and the heat, climbing past 110, was just terrible. Ash from burning land and homes dropped from the sky in Tulsa and other surrounding towns. The fires were burning a couple of towns over from where I live, perhaps 30, 45 minutes away.
However, a “cold” front was coming through and going to change the wind direction into, of course, our direction. Living in Oklahoma all my life, I can usually take weather phenomenon in stride, but this had me worried– especially since the wind shift was going to happen in the middle of the night.
I know that there were probably thousands and thousands of prayers going on last night for rain. And you know what happened? It did rain. For the first time in a long time, we had thunder and lightening and a good soak here. I just hope that this rain also poured down on those areas that need it most.
This morning I’ve heard that at least one of the towns evacuated has had the order lifted and people can now return to their homes. I hope– although I haven’t heard precisely yet (the news coverage on these fires has been really frustrating and pretty disappointing for an event where entire populations are being asked to leave their homes!) that the rains have helped firefighters contain the fires and weather conditions make them easier to put out.
Since the ‘cold front’ came through, we’re supposed to be a whole 10 degrees cooler— but when it’s 111 outside, that just means it’s going to be about 100 degrees out. So….cool, relatively.
I just read too that the entire county is under mandatory water rationing until further notice, with all outdoor watering prohibited. I’m glad my plants got a good soak last night. And I was so happy to see those clouds and that lightening and thunder arrive last night. It felt like a miracle. It probably was.
So I am thankful to report that we are fine here where I live, but keep these scorched plains, and the people who have lost so much in your thoughts and prayers.
Well this weekend has been pretty eventful, but not of the kind you’d want. You may have seen on the news that there are several grass fires burning across Oklahoma right now— the largest fire my county has ever seen has been burning for at least three days and yesterday things got pretty intense.
Several communities, including two good-sized towns, were given a mandatory evacuation and hundreds of acres and many homes have now gone up in flames. Yesterday the sky to the west was a strange and unnerving billow of gray and yellow and the heat, climbing past 110, was just terrible. Ash from burning land and homes dropped from the sky in Tulsa and other surrounding towns. The fires were burning a couple of towns over from where I live, perhaps 30, 45 minutes away.
However, a “cold” front was coming through and going to change the wind direction into, of course, our direction. Living in Oklahoma all my life, I can usually take weather phenomenon in stride, but this had me worried– especially since the wind shift was going to happen in the middle of the night.
I know that there were probably thousands and thousands of prayers going on last night for rain. And you know what happened? It did rain. For the first time in a long time, we had thunder and lightening and a good soak here. I just hope that this rain also poured down on those areas that need it most.
This morning I’ve heard that at least one of the towns evacuated has had the order lifted and people can now return to their homes. I hope– although I haven’t heard precisely yet (the news coverage on these fires has been really frustrating and pretty disappointing for an event where entire populations are being asked to leave their homes!) that the rains have helped firefighters contain the fires and weather conditions make them easier to put out.
Since the ‘cold front’ came through, we’re supposed to be a whole 10 degrees cooler— but when it’s 111 outside, that just means it’s going to be about 100 degrees out. So….cool, relatively.
I just read too that the entire county is under mandatory water rationing until further notice, with all outdoor watering prohibited. I’m glad my plants got a good soak last night. And I was so happy to see those clouds and that lightening and thunder arrive last night. It felt like a miracle. It probably was.
So I am thankful to report that we are fine here where I live, but keep these scorched plains, and the people who have lost so much in your thoughts and prayers.
Til next time,
~H
Sleightholm Folk Art 
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