Oklahoma sign

[kelpie]

Anybody out there from Oklahoma or know something about it? I saw signs several times today that said "Do not drive into the Smoke." What in the world does that mean? I haven't paid real close attention to news while I've been traveling but I'm pretty sure that there haven't been any forest fires in OK? Please help cos this will drive me crazy.

[retiredhappy]

Made by the same sign person that did the signs in New Mexico that say "No Camping on shoulders" which is about 2feet wide. Who the hell camped there that made these signs necessary?

[bluepinecones]

Maybe they are permanent warnings. Found another on-line comment and photo
http://www.albertelli.com/photoarchive/trip/Day2/tn/IMG_0948.JPG.html.
Does make you wonder how dumb people are.

Then I found this:

Signs In America...

“Do not drive into smoke”

This is a sign you will see if you drive through Oklahoma. Why would they post this sign along their highways? I have developed several theories.

Theory #1
People in that region refer to “fog” as “smoke”. Seems reasonable enough. Driving into thick fog could be dangerous.

Theory #2
Oklahoma is made up of many Indian reservations. Indians, according to ancient lore, communicate via a medium known as “smoke signals”. If you were to drive through these signals you might jumble them up, causing the Indains to think people are sending them gibberish messages. That's just plain rude.

Theory #3
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And you wouldn’t drive into fire, would you?

Then, we looked on the internet (which knows everything). This is the explanation we found: These signs stem from a huge pileup that occurred when a farmer burned his fields, causing masses of smoke to linger upon the highway, and ultimately cause over 40 cars to careen into one another.

Other signs:

“Warning: Regional ice may be present”

Hmmm, is that a special ice? Ice with an accent? I guess in Arizona it is. Who knew it got that cold in Arizona. I hate the cold.

“Gusty winds may exist”

Yes, and so might space aliens. A lot of things may exist. That just sounds funny to me. What's wrong with "Danger, Stong Winds"?

[avalen]

I remember as a kid when moving to Colorado with my parents, coming up over
Raton Pass, first sign I saw said "HILL" duh!! we were on it! and it was like a 6%
grade, (can't remember exactly, maybe it was 7) but definately more than
a hill.

[mitch5252]

Now, that's funny.

[kelpie]

Thanks, that was hilarious. Makes you wonder what some dumbkoff did to make the highway dept decide to post these.

[Cedar518]

I'm still laughing over the "gusty winds" line,..... I thought a wind WAS "gusty"... sort of a double descriptive sentence.

[Birdie]

Hey, you really got to watch out, us Okies are all over the place. Actually, the sign is referring to the smoke caused from grass fires. That thar is prairie grass country. Those fires are caused by high winds knocking down power lines and that causes arcing and fire. Some times you get dry lightening and that causes fires - arizona and nm get those dry lightening fires. Couple years ago lots of grass fires in west texas and oklahoma that killed a few people who drove into the smoke (since they didn't know it was a few hundred miles wide they didn't make it out), burned lots of cattle, and many homes. Again this is a dry time and grass fires are out there burning thousands of acres. You are right not that many trees in oklahma and they want to save both of them!

[Getupngo]

By coincidence ... this is in today's news:

Dozens of homes destroyed in Texas, Oklahoma fires

By MURRAY EVANS – 10 hours ago

MIDWEST CITY, Okla. (AP) — Fire crews in Oklahoma and Texas raced Thursday to control wind-whipped wildfires that destroyed dozens of homes, forced evacuations and shut down parts of a major highway.

Howling wind that had gusted to more than 50 mph grounded firefighting efforts by air in Oklahoma and drove blazes that scorched neighborhoods like "a war zone," Midwest City police Chief Brandon Clabes said.

...

Interstate 35, the state's main north-south highway, was closed in the county as well as in Payne County, where at least 12 agencies were battling a blaze estimated at five to six miles wide, said Kirk Mittlestet, emergency management director for Stillwater. Wind-whipped grass fires in western Oklahoma also closed State Highway 152.


DON'T DRIVE INTO THAT SMOKE!

[avalen]

yep, case in point, I was gonna pull up this thread also, but Janice, you beat me
to it. So don't drive into the smoke, really sad so many houses got burnt to the
ground.

[snowball]

when I read this the first time didn't even think about the gusty wind sign... so understand that there is wind that is blowing at 15 mph and then there is wind that is blowing at 15 mph that may gust up to 35mph can be scary stuff and in some areas you get those winds due to canyons ect and when towing a high profile trailor can cause a lot of stress
sheila

[Sparkle]

Beth and I just drove through an area with big yellow signs printed in red "Dust Storms possible for the next 15 miles." Then following closely behind "Do NOT stop on the Highway." At the end of the 15 miles there was a new one saying the same thing. So we had 30 miles of potential dust storms. Only ran into a short one luckily. But I could do without this constant wind.

[kelpie]

yep, heard on the news yesterday about wildfires in OKlahome. Who knew? Home now, had some plumbing issues to deal with but getting all settled in. Will post later final details of trip home and NM also.