Brown County reissued a burn ban on Monday, May 31st in a special called meeting of the Brown County commissioner’s court.

Commissioners briefly discussed the implications of a burn ban, and then took a vote to reissue the ban in a split vote.   Commissioner Joel Kelton of Precinct 2 was the only vote against the ban.  Kelton’s vote was due to his precinct “having plenty of rain in the last few weeks”, unlike the southwest area of the county which is still seeing high drought numbers on the Keetch-Byram drought index of 500-700.

According to the National Weather Service, recent weather predictions show rain chances are very slim today at 10% and there is no prediction of rain for the area for the next several days with only a 10% chance again on Sunday, June 5th.  This week’s high temperatures and high winds along with low humidity were the motivators for the commissioners’ decision.

The burn ban will be in place for 90 days unless commissioners repeal it at a later date.  Commissioners lifted the previous burn ban on May 2, 2011 due to recent rains in the county.  The previous ban was in place for six months.