Event
Rhea Fire 2018
United States
The Rhea Fire in Dewey County, Oklahoma—which burned 286,196 acres in total—is the third major fire in three back-to-back years to tear through hundreds of thousands of acres in the Oklahoma Plains. These fires are three of the five worst fires on record in Oklahoma, going back to 1997. Unusually hot temperatures contributed to the extreme fire conditions that fueled each of them.
These record-breaking wildfires are consistent with the long-term increasing wildfire activity observed in the western US grasslands, an increase fueled in part by climate change trends in the Great Plains region.
Apr 20, 2018 | Business Insider
A fire in the US midwest is so big you can see it from space — two people have been killed in the blaze so far
Apr 20, 2018 | PBS NewsHour
Wildfires are spreading across Oklahoma. Here’s what you need to know
Apr 19, 2018 | The Weather Channel
Plains Wildfires Ignite: At Least 23 Homes Destroyed in Southern Colorado Blaze; 50 Homes Claimed by Rhea Fire in Oklahoma
Resource
Apr 18, 2018 | Climate at a Glance | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
Chart: Oklahoma Average March Temperatures 2018
Resource
Apr 18, 2018 | Josh Wallace on Twitter
Tweet: Community of Vici hit hard by fire; 32 homes burn
Resource
Apr 17, 2018 | National Interagency Fire Center
Charts: Rhea Fire Among Oklahoma's Largest
Jul 10, 2017 | Geophysical Research Letters
Surging wildfire activity in a grassland biome
May 23, 2016 | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
Increasing western US forest wildfire activity: sensitivity to changes in the timing of spring
May 13, 2016 | Nature Communications
Climate-induced variations in global wildfire danger from 1979 to 2013