Marginal Risks of Severe Storms on the Central Plains; Flash flooding on the Northern Plains; Frost & Freeze Warnings in portions of the West & Northeast

A storm system developing across the Plains may cause locally severe weather in western Kansas and southwestern Nebraska today, with isolated flash flooding possible in portions of eastern Montana and western North Dakota. Frost and Freeze Warnings are in effect for portions of the central Rockies and central Appalachians tonight into Friday morning. Read More >

Prior to the seasonal green-up, land management agencies engage in a lot of prescribed burning to help promote a healthy and sometimes safer ecology. The Horicon Marsh area up in northern Dodge county is an active place for prescribed, or controlled burns. One fire on, Thursday, April 23, was generating a large smoke plume that was clearly visible from our tower camera and was picked up by our WSR-88D doppler radar.

Here's the view looking north from the tower camera:

Here's the view from the radar:

We can use this example as a training exercise to run the NOAA HYSPIT model. If this were a hazardous materials release that generated a potentially dangerous plume, the HYSPLIT model could give us a good idea where the plume is headed and what the dispersion concentrations would be. We would be working closely with state and local emergency management to help inform the public of any possible dangers. So, with that in mind, here an animation of the smoke plume using the HYSPLIT model. It looks like a reasonable approximation!

Davis

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Marginal Risks of Severe Storms on the Central Plains; Flash flooding on the Northern Plains; Frost & Freeze Warnings in portions of the West & Northeast

Large Smoke Plume From Horicon Marsh Area