By Conrad Easterday, CTCN Editor

Burn bans are in effect in Comanche, Cotton, Kiowa, Greer and Jackson counties in southwest Oklahoma, but Stephens, Grady and Caddo counties remain ban free.
Stephens County Commissioners stopped short of enacting a ban at their Sept. 12 meeting. Chairman Russell Morgan said he had received mixed input from fire departments on the question. The item will continue to be placed on the Commissioners’ agenda for the time being.
In Grady County Monday, burn bans became less likely after overnight rainfall neared 2 inches in many locations, according to Mesonet and NOAA data.
Anadarko received no rain over the last 24 hours Monday, although Fort Cobb, Apache and Gracemont saw precipitation between 0.79 and 1.61 inches.
Also overnight Monday, a half-inch fell at one reporting station in Duncan while other Duncan stations reported 0 inches and 0.9 inches. The city of Comanche recorded 1.48 inches.
The Mesonet meteorological website shows Oklahoma’s farthest southwest counties remain in a state of extreme drought. Of the six counties suffering from extreme conditions, only Tillman has not declared a burn ban. Farther north and east, drought conditions are labeled severe in most of Stephens and Caddo counties while a drought map of Grady County displays bands of severe, moderate and abnormally dry areas.
The rest of Oklahoma is generally less parched, excluding one pocket of extreme drought on the border of Garfield and Noble counties in north-central Oklahoma. A notable chunk of eastern counties are listed as “normal.”