Rainfall washed away dozens of burn bans across Arkansas this week, erasing most of what had became one of the state's broadest open-fire prohibitions in half a decade, officials said.
Rain nonetheless continues to elude a few places in north Arkansas such as Fulton County, whose county judge has not given the all-clear for outdoor fires, said Jeannie Wilcox, the county's emergency management coordinator. Farm clippings are piling up, and residents are waiting to burn their household garbage in a rural area that lacks affordable trash pickup, Wilcox said.
"I don't remember the last time we've gotten truly measurable rain," Wilcox said Wednesday afternoon regarding a burn ban that has exceeded two weeks. "We've got blue skies here right now."
Four of the state's 75 counties were still under burn bans as of late Wednesday afternoon, according to the Arkansas Forestry Commission and interviews with local officials. They were Fulton, Madison, Mississippi, and Newton counties.
That's down from a peak of 70 within the past week, said Adriane Barnes, communications director for the state Agriculture Department, which monitors county bans but does not impose them.
County judges often call for bans after consulting with fire departments and a wildfire risk index, and the governor has the authority to ban burning throughout the state.
"The most recent year we've had the whole state under a burn ban was 2012," Barnes said. "I'm fairly certain we have not had up to 70 [counties at a time] since then."
Although forecasters continue to project lower-than-normal precipitation this winter, a storm system expected this week could cause flooding in part of the state, said Sean Clarke, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.
"We do know an area is going to receive a heavy amount of rain, and right now our best forecast is that West Memphis to Stuttgart to Pine Bluff area," Clarke said, noting that as much as 4 inches of rain is possible in that area.
Wildfires in Arkansas have been fewer but larger this year when compared with 2012, Barnes said. Five years ago, 2,148 wildfires burned 34,434 acres across the state, an average of 16 acres per fire, she said. So far this year, 1,554 wildfires have burned an average of 17.5 acres.
"Since 2012, we have not had fires to remove a lot of debris on the ground," she said. "So when we do have fires, this year especially, the trend was they were quite a bit larger in acreage."
Residents have mostly adhered to the ban on fires in Fulton County, Wilcox said. Smaller wildfires have broken out but were quickly contained by volunteer fire departments, she said.
The county thirsts for rain, and this weekend's forecast -- projecting less than 1 inch -- doesn't look promising, Clarke said.
"We need some serious rain dances," Wilcox said.
Metro on 12/21/2017