“It’s definitely time to get the burn ban back into effect.”
Comal County Fire Marshal Kory Klabunde told Commissioners Court today the Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) is at 553 points and rising by 10 points per day.
Commissioners unanimously voted to reinstate the ban as required by law when KBDI exceeds 500 points. The burn ban is for unincorporated areas of the county like Canyon Lake.
During the burn ban, the following are not allowed:
- Brush fires
- Campfires
- Burn barrels
- Fire pits and rings
- Any other open flame
The only exception is a barbecue pit used for cooking which is off the ground and has a lid to contain sparks and flames.
KBDI is an index used to determine forest fire potential, according to WaterDataforTexas.org.
The drought index is based on a daily water balance, where a drought factor is balanced with precipitation and soil moisture (assumed to have a maximum storage capacity of eight inches) and is expressed in hundredths of an inch of soil moisture depletion.
The drought index ranges from 0 to 800, where 0 indicates no moisture depletion and 800 indicates absolutely dry conditions. The index is derived from ground-based estimates of temperature and precipitation from weather stations and interpolated manually by experts at the Texas Forest Service (TFS) for counties across the state.