Plains megafire burns a Chicago-sized area spanning two states with more dangerous weather to come

Wreckage from a multi-vehicle crash is seen on Interstate 25 near Pueblo, Colorado, on Tuesday. (Colorado State Patrol/AP via CNN Newsource)

Dangerous, critical fire weather conditions persist Wednesday after more than a dozen new wildfires torched tens of thousands of acres and forced evacuations in the Plains amid bone-dry conditions and powerful winds on Tuesday.

The Ranger Road Fire is the largest and is now a megafire: It exploded in size and has burned at least 145,000 acres in Oklahoma and Kansas since starting early Tuesday afternoon. That’s about the size of Chicago.

Most of that extreme growth happened in just eight hours, during which the fire on average consumed an area equal to three to four football fields every second. The fire was at 0 per cent containment as of Wednesday morning, according to the Oklahoma Forestry Service.

The Ranger Road Fire started in Beaver County, Oklahoma, then spread for about 60 miles to reach southern Kansas. It forced the evacuations of thousands of people in Englewood and Ashland, Kansas on Tuesday, according to CNN affiliate KAKE.

Another wildfire that broke out in Woodward, Oklahoma — a city of about 12,000 residents in northwestern part of the state — forced several thousand people to evacuate in the southwest quadrant of the city, the Woodward County emergency manager, Matt Lehenbauer, told CNN affiliate KOCO. Most of these evacuation orders were lifted by late Tuesday.

The fire also prompted evacuations at Northwestern Oklahoma State University’s Woodward campus, which remains closed until further notice, the school said on X.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt declared a disaster emergency for Beaver, Texas and Woodward counties on Wednesday, to activate state emergency management resources. Stitt had also requested air assets from Texas to help battle the fires, but it was too windy to fly, the governor told CNN affiliate KOCO Tuesday.

“I’ve instructed all the forestry assets from the eastern part of the state that are already on their way – most of them are already there – just to put every fire hose we have and every bulldozer, make sure that we get those lines prepared,” he said.

Multiple other dangerous fires have each burned thousands of acres since in the Plains and Rockies starting Tuesday, including two in the Texas Panhandle called the Lavender and 8-Ball fires.

Weather conditions won’t help crews fighting massive fires

The risk of extreme fire behavior on Wednesday is slightly lower than it was during Tuesday’s “Particularly Dangerous Situation” red flag warnings, but not by much.

More than 750,000 people in the Plains saw Level 3 of 3 extremely critical fire weather conditions on Tuesday. No areas were under this level Wednesday morning, but the Storm Prediction Center warned a handful of places in the Level 2 of 3 — or critical — fire weather conditions area could get close.

More than 5 million people were under red flag warnings from New Mexico and Texas to Colorado and Kansas on Wednesday.

Dry air and sustained winds up to 20 mph with some higher gusts will continue to challenge fire crews on Wednesday and into Thursday. Windy conditions will continue to spur fire growth — especially in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas —through the tinder-dry fuels, like grasses.

Past wildfires sparked in similar conditions have been devastating: 2024’s Smokehouse Creek Fire in the Texas Panhandle, the state’s largest wildfire, burned through more than 500 structures.

This dangerous setup has been brewing all winter. Nearly 200 locations across the West, Rockies and portions of the Plains are experiencing their warmest winter to date, according to data from NOAA. This includes where the worst fires are burning this week in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

The persistent heat coupled with less precipitation than normal has created dry to drought-stricken soils in the region and crispy fuels. It’s a situation that will likely only become more common as the world warms due to fossil fuel pollution.

Powerful winds turned deadly

Tuesday’s high winds also whipped up dust and dirt, making travel hazardous. In Colorado, at least four people were killed in a pileup amid reduced visibility in “brown out” conditions, the state patrol said.

The pileup on Interstate 25 south of Pueblo, Colorado, involved over 30 vehicles and occurred after winds gusted up to 61 mph.

“Visibility was next to nothing,” Colorado State Police Maj. Brian Lyons said, describing the wind event as moving in very quickly.

At least 29 people were taken to the hospital with injuries described as minor to moderate, with a “few” described as serious, according to the Colorado State Patrol.

By CNN Meteorologist Mary Gilbert