Rain arrives in time to cancel burn ban
By SHANNON CRABTREE scrabtree@leader-news.com

Drenching rains in El Campo and Wharton washed away a scheduled ban on outdoor burning before the public could even be notified.

Storms rolling through the area Monday evening dropped 1.98 inches over El Campo, according to the Lower Colorado River Authority rain gauge posted at El Campo Memorial Hospital. In Wharton, the storm total was recorded at 2.89 inches while Glen Flora received 1.97 inches and far western Wharton County .88 inches.

The rain Monday helped douse a field fire in Hillje which had El Campo and Louise firefighters scrambling as cotton hulls burned off CR 304 and winds spread flames.

Saturday a field fire off FM 960 about a mile from U.S. 59 required the El Campo, Danevang, Louise and Wharton departments to douse.

A burn ban is automatically implemented in Wharton County when the Texas Forest Service's Keetch-Byram Drought Index indicates there is a danger of wild fire.

On the zero to 800 scale, a 500 is considered the danger level where it's estimated a good, slow four to five inch rain is needed to fully saturate soils.

Monday afternoon, the KBDI notice issued by the Wharton County Office of Emergency Management indicated the KBDI had hit 505.

To allow for public notification, the enforcement period doesn't go into effect until 12:01 a.m. Thursday giving time for the El Campo Leader-News and the Wharton Journal-Spectator to distribute the information to the public.

But Monday, the first cool rains of what would later be a deluge fell as the e-mail notice rolled across the computerized network.

Tuesday morning the notice of cancellation appeared.

For readers wanting to track conditions, the newspaper provides the current KBDI index number as well as a notification of whether or not a burn ban is in effect as part of the weather box appearing on the front page of each edition of the Leader- News. The notification appears in the lower left hand side of the page just above the UPC code.