(CNN) After a heat spell brought record-breaking high temperatures to the central United States, wildfires burned about 40,000 acres in Oklahoma on Thursday, Michelle Finch-Walker with the state forestry agency said. "We haven't had one of these in the last few years," said Mark Goeller, the Oklahoma Forestry Services' fire management chief, told CNN. "Fires are going to burn all night." Temperatures in Dodge City, Kansas, reached 88 degrees, according to the weather service -- breaking the previous record high for February by two degrees. El Paso, Texas, where it was 83 degrees; Wichita, Kansas, where it was 77; and Russell, Kansas, which notched 88 degrees, all saw historic highs."Fires are going to burn all night," Oklahoma official tells CNNRecords set in Texas, Kansas; temperatures climb in Colorado, New MexicoFire warnings issued for several areas in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma
The NWS said the risk of fire was considered "extreme" in parts of north Texas, New Mexico, _, Kansas and the Oklahoma Panhandle.