The ban on burning outdoors in Bee County expired Monday.

That means county residents who live outside the city of Beeville may once again burn brush and debris outdoors — once they obtain the necessary burn permit.

Burn permits are available from the Bee County Emergency Management Coordinator’s office and from the fire marshal’s office.

County residents also must notify the sheriff’s department of any planned burns to keep local fire departments from rushing off to what they believe is a wildfire, said David Morgan, emergency management coordinator for the county.

Bee County is still in an “extreme drought,” Morgan told county commissioners during their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday.

The Texas Forestry Service had listed Bee County as being in an “exceptional drought” earlier this year but some rain showers in April and May helped reduce the county’s ranking.

Morgan said the county presently ranks between 600 and 700 on the Keetch-Byrum Drought Index, which measures moisture in the soil, precipitation in the air and temperature.

The drought index ranges from 0 to 800, in which a drought index of 0 represents no moisture depletion, and an index of 800 represents absolutely dry conditions.

Fast-moving thunderstorms that moved through Bee County last week did little to dampen the danger of wildfires, Morgan said.

“Some pockets of the county are in extreme drought conditions and other pockets of the county are in the 300-400 range,” he said. “People have asked me if they can burn because they got rain and I asked them, ‘Yeah, but what about your neighbor?’”

Morgan said the squall line that moved through Bee County last week dumped less than an inch of rain on his property in the southern portion of the county and up to three inches in the northern portion of the county.

“I got a half-inch of rain on my property in south Bee County and less than five miles away people got up to three inches of rain,” he said.

County residents who do not want to burn their own brush and debris may continue to pile it by the roadside for county crews to collect.

The county is not presently collecting brush and debris left by the roadway because its burn pit is filled to capacity.

The county has received permission to burn the brush and debris in the near future.

The burn is expected to last three days. Once the burn is completed, county crews will once again collect brush and debris left by the roadside.

As always, rural residents may also burn household trash from 8 to 11 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday as long as they burn the garbage in a barrel covered with a wire mesh to prevent embers from escaping and starting a wildfire.