Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby reported live from Missouri at the scene of a wildfire ahead of expected severe storms in the Midwest on March 14.
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00:00Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby he's joining us right live right now and out in Missouri
00:04So Aaron give us an update on where you are and what you're seeing
00:09Yeah, good evening Damien so right now actually while we wait on the storms to develop a little bit later
00:14There's actually a wildfire burning behind me between Alton and Donovan, Missouri just
00:23Now the firefighters have done a good job at preventing this from jumping the line right here
00:29But unfortunately several structures have been lost behind me
00:32So this tells you how dynamic this storm system is and how widespread those impacts are even outside of the tornado threat
00:38We still have about three or four more hours before we're expecting that tornado threat to ramp up and the fire crews here already have
00:44their hands full
00:46All right, Aaron
00:47Yes
00:47This is gonna be one of those things that we're watching very carefully because yes
00:50Even though these areas are going to be in a highly impactful severe weather threat zone
00:54We're also watching out for the strong wind strong winds or strong winds or strong winds and they can be created by severe thunderstorms
01:00But whenever they're in a dry environment like you're in right now, it can also produce wildfires
01:07That's absolutely correct and as you can see right behind me in this shot
01:10This is one of the drones that they're actually using to help fight this fire and get it contained right now
01:15It's currently marching pretty much parallel to this highway right now that I'm standing on
01:20They have been doing evacuations for homes on the leading edge of this
01:23It was a lot more smoky earlier, but now the fire line has continued to push off
01:28I believe it's to the east that I'm facing right here
01:30and there's more structures down the way that are at that threat if this thing does not get contained soon and
01:36That they might run into the issue of unfortunately receiving some damage from this fire and the winds are only going to get worse as
01:41The evening progresses into the overnight hours
01:45Rigsby thank you so much for that update. We'll check in with you here coming up
01:48So Jeff one of the things that Aaron mentioned is that the winds in his position?
01:52They are pretty much running parallel to the highways
01:56That's good news because you don't want to get those strong winds running perpendicular to the highways because that's how you get semis flipped over
02:02That's true and
02:03Damien we have a new tornado watch as she just mentioned right off the top here
02:07Just recently added here for a big chunk of Missouri
02:10Western Illinois and it areas near Mountain Home, Arkansas and all the way down to an area like North Central, Arkansas
02:16just a little bit north of
02:18The Little Rock Metro, but again powerful winds the fire danger all huge concerns out there in so many different ways