Grayson County Bans Outdoor Burning Through September

By GvilleTX Newsroom

Grayson County commissioners banned outdoor burning in the unincorporated parts of that county through Sept. 30, adopting Order 26-030 on a 5-0 vote Aug. 11, county agenda records show. Cooke County has been under its own ban since Aug. 10, so the two orders now restrict outdoor burning in unincorporated areas on both sides of the line east of Gainesville, with listed exemptions, unless the commissioners courts end them earlier.

For a landowner outside the city limits, the rule is short. The Grayson order bars outdoor burning, including brush piles, and allows outdoor cooking only in an enclosed container set in an area free of combustible vegetation. A violation is a Class C misdemeanor with a fine of up to $500.

The court found that drought-related conditions had created a public-safety hazard that outdoor burning would make worse. Fire Marshal John Weda carried the request for the Grayson County Fire Marshal's Office, which wrote in its recommendation that extreme temperatures and continued hot, dry weather were expected to hold, drying surface fuels and making wildland fire harder to suppress. Weda told commissioners the county's Keetch-Byram Drought Index averaged 636 that morning, above the 575 policy threshold for court consideration, with the driest part of the county at 681. Texas A&M defines KBDI as a 0-to-800 index of forest-fire potential based on daily water balance, rainfall and soil moisture.

Keetch-Byram Drought Index, Texas A&M — county average / maximum Grayson: 636 / 681 on Aug. 11, rising to 664 / 701 by Aug. 20 Cooke: 635 / 684, rising to 662 / 703 Fannin: 643 / 684, rising to 671 / 704 Scale runs from 0, no moisture depletion, to 800, absolutely dry.

The length of the order was a deliberate choice. Weda told the court that state law allows as long as 90 days, and commissioners discussed the trouble with renewing a ban every week. Weda said the seven-day orders made work for county officials and left the public unsure what was in force; in 2023 he told the court that a week at a time had long been Grayson's practice. The Aug. 11 meeting video shows Commissioner Marr moving to cover the rest of August and all of September. Weda told commissioners that Commissioners Court, the county judge or he could cancel the ban if conditions changed.

The county's last burn ban, Weda said, was in August 2024. County minutes show commissioners continued that one on Sept. 24, 2024, for 28 days, ending at noon Oct. 22.

The order carves out firefighter training, certified prescribed burns, restricted welding and hot work, along with certain utility, pipeline, mining and agricultural activity. Cooke County's Aug. 10 order runs 90 days unless commissioners end it sooner, and holds outdoor cooking to an enclosed device with 10 feet of clearance and fire suppression equipment immediately available.

Grayson is far from alone. The Texas A&M Forest Service, which says bans come from county judges or commissioners courts when drought conditions exist, listed 167 counties under a ban on Aug. 18 and 174 on its live feed the afternoon of Aug. 20. Texas A&M data showed Grayson's KBDI average had risen from 636 on Aug. 11 to 664 on Aug. 20. NOAA's Climate Prediction Center said in its August-through-October outlook that drought persistence had become more likely over the High Plains and was also favored where drought already sits in southern Texas.