2026 Wild Fire Season

[Brad]

2025 Wild Fire Season

I haven't had a ton of time to pay attention today, but there are some serious wild fires burring in Nebraska today.

[Brad]

As of an hour ago, the "Road 203 Fire" is now 35,718 and included a huge section of the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey, NE. A big chuck of that forest just burned 2 years ago.......

Map:

Screenshot 2026-03-12 230750.jpg

[Brad]

15 min ago, Oshkosh & Lewellen residents were asked to evacuate, north side of Lake McConaughy
1 hour ago, Dawson county was asked to evacuate, including Farnam, NE
5 hours ago Dunning and Halsey were being evacuated

[Brad]

Still trying to get people evacuated on the north side of Lake McConaughy

[Brad]

Still trying to get people evacuated on the north side of Lake McConaughy

No updated map yet, but the Morrill fire is now listed at 330,000 Acres. If the Lake McConaughy fire is part of the Morrill Fire, that means the Morill fire has burned in at least 3 counties.

EDIT, the Lake McConaughy fire is the same as the Morrill Fire, so that means the fire has moved over 75 miles from where it started!

[Habits76]

I didn't realize the fires were that big from yesterday. Crazy how fast these things can move with the wind pushing them.

[Brad]

I didn’t really know about them either until I got on social media last night. Between some of the weather people I follow and some of the rural media people I follow, that’s how I learned about it..

Thanks for the map. Where did you find it?

[Habits76]

I didn’t really know about them either until I got on social media last night. Between some of the weather people I follow and some of the rural media people I follow, that’s how I learned about it..

Thanks for the map. Where did you find it?

I found it on Google maps. I zoomed into that area on the map and it shows a pin of the wildfire, then clicked on it and it shows the area of the fire.

[Brad]

I didn’t really know about them either until I got on social media last night. Between some of the weather people I follow and some of the rural media people I follow, that’s how I learned about it..

Thanks for the map. Where did you find it?

I found it on Google maps. I zoomed into that area on the map and it shows a pin of the wildfire, then clicked on it and it shows the area of the fire.

Thanks. Its on watch duty now and watch duty actually shows the area still burning.

[BRoss]

As of an hour ago, the "Road 203 Fire" is now 35,718 and included a huge section of the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey, NE. A big chuck of that forest just burned 2 years ago.......

My gf and me went through that forest last year on our way up to Merritt from checking out the sandhill cranes and wondered what happened to it as we were going through it. Found out later about the recent fire. It's too bad it's on fire again. It was already in pretty bad shape.

[Brad]

Wow 453,299 Acres now

Map:

Screenshot 2026-03-13 182045.jpg

[Cermak]

Huge fires. I was at Nebraska national forest in Halsey maybe 15 years ago . I remember they had a fire tower not sure if it’s there anymore. One of the few if not the only one in Nebraska. Will be a shame if the forest is burned heavily again as it is an interesting and unique area.

[Brad]

Huge fires. I was at Nebraska national forest in Halsey maybe 15 years ago . I remember they had a fire tower not sure if it’s there anymore. One of the few if not the only one in Nebraska. Will be a shame if the forest is burned heavily again as it is an interesting and unique area.

The Fire burned a few years back in 2022, the last big fire out there.

Update on the current fires. Four fires totaling 701,743 Acres, that's over 1000 square miles burnt in the past few days.

Morrill Fire = 548,933 Acres

Morrill 2026-03-14 230139.jpg

Cottonwood Fire - 100,000 Acres (Map not showing but heat areas are showing)

Cottonwood 2026-03-14 230421.jpg

Road 203 Fire = 36,405 Acres

Road 203-2026-03-14 230324.jpg

Anderson Bridge Fire = 16,405 Acres

Anderson Bridge 2026-03-14 230246.jpg

.

[nativeomahan]

Come to Nebraska in spring, for fire and ice at the same time.

[Brad]

Morning Update on two of the fires. Better maps should come out later today.

[Brad]

New updates out.

Morrill Fire = 572,804 Acres, and 18% Contained
Cottonwood Fire - 131,259 Acres, and 40% Contained
Road 203 Fire = 35,814 Acres, and 36% Contained (better maps lowered the acreage on this one just a little)
Anderson Bridge Fire = 17,400 Acres, and 60% Contained

[Cermak]

Sounds like they may have turned the corner and contained them somewhat.

[CompSci99]

Looks like these fires have turned some of the more severely affected areas of the sandhills back into sand dunes. Not sure if there is a significant worry about destabilization and shifting of the underlying sand dunes onto unaffected land, but I thought I'd share this photo from facebook and a 2018 research article from UNL's "BEEF" institute to give more context to the effects of these wildfires.


https://beef.unl.edu/beefwatch/research ... -wildfire/

[almighty_tuna]

Wow, that's a stark change. Hope that grasses grow back and grow back quickly to avoid major erosion.

[Louie]

My understanding of grassland ecosystems is that these fires were once rather typical of the area and something like 80% of the mass of grassland biomes is below ground which make them extremely resistant to dying out from fires. So hopefully that stands true today.

[nebugeater]

My understanding of grassland ecosystems is that these fires were once rather typical of the area and something like 80% of the mass of grassland biomes is below ground which make them extremely resistant to dying out from fires. So hopefully that stands true today.

My understanding is that the time of the year of the fire will aid in a quicker recovery also,

[Brad]

My understanding of grassland ecosystems is that these fires were once rather typical of the area and something like 80% of the mass of grassland biomes is below ground which make them extremely resistant to dying out from fires. So hopefully that stands true today.

My understanding is that the time of the year of the fire will aid in a quicker recovery also,

The grass will be fine and the fire should help reduce the number of invasive Western Red Cedar trees, which I believe are really flammable.

[Louie]

My understanding of grassland ecosystems is that these fires were once rather typical of the area and something like 80% of the mass of grassland biomes is below ground which make them extremely resistant to dying out from fires. So hopefully that stands true today.

My understanding is that the time of the year of the fire will aid in a quicker recovery also,

The grass will be fine and the fire should help reduce the number of invasive Western Red Cedar trees, which I believe are really flammable.

Good call, those Cedars are a real problem. And they bring almost no benefits to the larger ecosystem. The only trees that I would miss would be stuff like bur oak, ponderosas, and cottonwoods by creeks, rivers, and lakes.

[Brad]

Good call, those Cedars are a real problem. And they bring almost no benefits to the larger ecosystem. The only trees that I would miss would be stuff like bur oak, ponderosas, and cottonwoods by creeks, rivers, and lakes.

The large healthy trees in a traditional grassland shouldn't burn and be fine. A traditional grassland fire should move quick and be low heat. However if the same trees healthy are surrounded by a bunch of invasive cedars that burn hot, that's a different problem.

[Brad]

Tew new fires over night. The Ashby Fire and the Minor Fire.

These numbers were a lot higher and then lowered with better mapping around 12:10 today. Before noon they were estimating 60,000 Acres fir Ashby.

Screenshot 2026-03-26 123056.jpg

The Ashby fire actually pushed in to the Morrill Fire, so you would assume that will stop or slow that fire down until the winds change again.

Map showing the Ashby Fire touching the Morrill Fire:

Screenshot 2026-03-26 123327.jpg

Morning Update from Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 1 :

[Brad]

At the end of this video (from yesterday morning), Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 2 has deployed 5 Initial Attack Teams across the state to help battle initial starts on any new fires. They are in Alliance, two in Oglala, Broken Bow and Columbus. They have also been supporting local crews with the Curry Timber Fire in the SW corner of the state near Peru, Ne.

[Brad]

All the fires are now 100% Contained

[Louie]

All the fires are now 100% Contained

This last rain system that came through was a godsend.

[Cermak]

All the fires are now 100% Contained

This last rain system that came through was a godsend.

No kidding really helped, even in the Omaha area we needed it.

[Brad]

Lots of fires popped up yesterday.

Three largest are:
Andrews Fire west of Valentine - 2500 Acres
Peterson Fire north of Burwell - 1000 Acres
Pressey Fire south of Broken Bow - 1000 Acres

Looks like 6 others between Lake McConaughy and the Andrews Fire.

Map:

Screenshot 2026-04-23 085626.jpg

[Brad]

There is a 9000 Acre fire in Fort Robinson State Park

Screenshot 2026-06-10 100541.jpg

[almighty_tuna]

That is extraordinarily unfortunate. The area is beautiful.

[Louie]

I wonder how many fires we'll have this year. Could see a record at this rate.

[Brad]

A new Fire Perimeter map has come in in the past hour. The fire has made a big run to the east today and its just outside of Crawford. The good news is that its not in Crawford yet and has stayed out of the historical part of Fort Robinson.

Solid red outline is a verified fire perimeter established by people on the ground. The blotchy red and orange colors are hit signatures picked up by satellite. The reason they don't match is the satellite hasn't passed over since very recently.

Screenshot 2026-06-10 211423.jpg

[Brad]

Over 23,000 acres now and a little fire line right up to the historic fort, but that could also be a prescribed burn to protect the fort.

Screenshot 2026-06-11 073102.jpg

[Brad]

Lots of air Tankers operating out of Rapid City this afternoon working on the South Fork Fire. Flight radar 24 showing a steady parade.

[almighty_tuna]

Flight radar 24 showing a steady parade.

Cool, that's interesting to check out and watch

[Brad]

Operational Update:

[Brad]

Today's update is looking better. Still some work to do on the north and northwest sides.

[nebugeater]

Today's update is looking better. Still some work to do on the north and northwest sides.

wonder what this youtube account did to get terminated