Kelly Declares Emergency as Wildfires Force Southwest Kansas Evacuations

Critical Fire Weather Threatens Southwest Kansas as Crews Surge

Central Kansas Faces Tornado Risk Monday

Drought Drags Kansas Wheat Tour Estimate to 218 Million Bushels

Kansas Judge Blocks Ban on Youth Gender-Affirming Care

Kelly Declares Emergency as Wildfires Force Southwest Kansas Evacuations

MEADE, Kan. — Gov. Laura Kelly issued a verbal state of disaster emergency declaration Thursday night as wildfires raced across Clark, Ford, Harper, Meade and Morton counties, prompting evacuations and a highway closure. Crews from across southwest Kansas battled at least 17 grass fires believed to have been started by a dry thunderstorm, with the Meade Lake Fire growing to more than 33,000 acres and forcing the closure of K-23 from U.S. 54 to the Oklahoma state line. Evacuation orders were issued and later lifted for both the city of Meade and the city of Fowler, while Meade State Park was evacuated and remains closed until further notice. The Wolf Canyon Fire in south-central Seward County crossed into Oklahoma, and forward progress on the 51 Fire in Morton County, partially within the Cimarron National Grassland, was stopped. Meade Public Schools cancelled classes Friday, and task forces from across Kansas, including Sedgwick County, were deployed to support local resources. The Kansas Forest Service said dry lightning is expected across southwest Kansas throughout the next several days, and any fires that develop have the potential to spread quickly.

KWCH

Critical Fire Weather Threatens Southwest Kansas as Crews Surge

DODGE CITY, Kan. — A dangerous mix of strong winds, critically dry air and parched grasses has triggered an elevated fire weather warning across southwest Kansas Monday, threatening to rapidly spread ongoing wildfires. Gov. Laura Kelly has already issued a state of disaster emergency to support local crews battling blazes across at least five counties. The emergency response has deployed four Kansas Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopters and drawn more than 200 firefighters and 90 fire trucks from 75 departments across the state. The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center warned that any new sparks will catch and spread erratically due to sustained southwesterly winds of 25 to 30 mph and relative humidity dropping to between 5 and 15 percent. Forecasters urged residents to strictly avoid outdoor burning, as the extreme conditions overlap with abundant dry vegetation and smoldering holdover fires from recent dry thunderstorms. Additional firefighting resources from neighboring states are arriving to help extinguish current blazes before worsening winds push flames further out of control.

Wildfire threat very high Monday across southwest Kansas amid critical weather conditions

State officials deploy hundreds of firefighters as high winds and dry air threaten to rapidly spread new and existing blazes

citizen journalGreg Loving

Central Kansas Faces Tornado Risk Monday

WICHITA, Kan. — The Storm Prediction Center placed portions of central and northeastern Kansas under a Moderate Risk for severe thunderstorms Monday, the second-highest tier on the agency's five-level scale. Forecasters warned of supercells capable of producing strong to intense tornadoes, hail of 2 to 4 inches in diameter and damaging winds, with the primary corridor extending from central Kansas into southeastern Nebraska. The setup centered on a surface low, dryline and cold-front triple point, with a southerly low-level jet forecast to strengthen to 45 to 60 mph during the afternoon and evening. Tornadoes possibly stronger than EF2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale were considered possible if discrete supercells were maintained ahead of the dryline. The threat followed several consecutive days of severe weather across the Plains and was expected to shift east on Tuesday as the storm system moved through. Residents were urged to monitor local forecasts and have multiple ways to receive warnings.

Stars Insider

Drought Drags Kansas Wheat Tour Estimate to 218 Million Bushels

MANHATTAN, Kan. — The 2026 Wheat Quality Council's Hard Winter Wheat Tour wrapped up May 14 with a projected total Kansas production of 218 million bushels, based on observations from 394 fields across six routes between Manhattan, Colby and Wichita. The three-day average yield for fields calculated by tour participants was 38.9 bushels per acre. Both figures fall well below Kansas's 10-year averages of roughly 332 million bushels and 44 bushels per acre, though the projected crop would exceed the drought-stricken 2023 harvest of 191 million bushels, the smallest in the state since 1961. Drought was the dominant theme of the tour, with scouts encountering severe drought stress, freeze damage and wheat streak mosaic virus in some fields, while others appeared capable of producing respectable yields despite dry conditions. The fields are still two to eight weeks from harvest, leaving substantial weather risk to final production.

Kansas Wheat

Kansas Judge Blocks Ban on Youth Gender-Affirming Care

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas District Court Judge Carl Folsom III ruled Friday that the state's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, passed last year, is likely to violate the Kansas Constitution, and ordered the law blocked until a lawsuit filed by two transgender teenagers and their parents is resolved. Folsom wrote that the Kansas Constitution protects personal autonomy, including the fundamental right of parents to the care, custody and control of their minor children, and described gender-affirming care as the treatment with the most evidence of being helpful for gender dysphoria. The opinion cited a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that found the state Constitution protects bodily autonomy and guarantees access to abortion. Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach promised to appeal, calling the ruling a stark example of judicial activism that invented a new constitutional right. The order said the teenage plaintiffs had been forced to travel to Minnesota and Colorado for treatment at greater cost and emotional strain. The Kansas ruling came the same day Texas Children's Hospital agreed to a $10 million settlement with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ending gender-affirming care services, underscoring divergent legal trajectories among the 27 states that have limited or banned such care for minors.

Associated Press

Sources

1. KWCH
2. Stars Insider
3. Kansas Wheat
4. Associated Press

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