NWS — Hastings, Neb. — Early estimates are coming in about the size of the wildfire that burned across Gosper county into northern Furnas county Thursday afternoon and Thursday night that firefighters were still working on Friday evening. Aaron Mangels, Lead Meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS) in Hastings explains how officials arrived at the dimensions of the fire…
Mangels says, “Initial estimates that we received from the Nebraska Emergency Management was around 30,000 acres and looking at that on the satellite it appears that, that’s in the ballpark… It’s roughly, just measuring, roughly is about 20 miles in length and varying between a mile and 4 miles in width.”
Mangels says the size of nearby Harlan County Reservoir is something to use as a reference for the size of the burned area….
Mangels says the National Weather Service has a satellite photo of the burn scar and not far away is an image of Harlan County Reservoir which is between 10,000 to 13,000 acres. Mangels says it’s easy to see that the burn scar is significantly larger. He says it’s an unofficial estimate and he expects more research will be conducted to come up with an approximate size of the charred area.
Mangels says a weather system that’s expected to come through the region next week, during the Wednesday-Thursday time frame, has the potential for some precipitation, but if the precipitation doesn’t occur, there could be a continuing chance of wildfires.
