Hazy Wednesday in Sioux Falls Likely Thanks to Kansas Wildfire

A haze followed a little bit of rain into Sioux Falls on Wednesday (April 12). The likely culprit was wildfires in eastern Kansas.

From the NOAA office of Satellite and Product Operations:

A large patch of moderately dense to locally thick smoke was seen over eastern Kansas, southeastern Nebraska, and northeastern Oklahoma. This smoke was due to a tremendous amount of seasonal burning occurring

primarily in the Flint Hills region of eastern Kansas. Numerous individual smoke plumes were also visible over portions of central and western Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota with some of

these plumes merging to form relatively larger patches of smoke.

In the spring, areas of the Flint Hills rangeland in eastern Kansas are burned. According to Kansas Flint Hill Smoke Management, "These burns help preserve the tallgrass prairie, control invasive species such as Eastern Red Cedar and Sumac and provide better forage for cattle. Prescribed burning minimizes risk of wildfires and is effective in managing rangeland resources."

In the spring of 2016, over two million acres in the Flint Hills area were burned.

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