Drought events are well-known for causing a variety of environmental and social disasters. During the 1995-96 drought that gripped the Southwestern U.S., Oklahoma suffered the worst outbreak of wildfire activity in recent history, particularly in its prairie grasslands. Due to the ferocity and wide distribution of the fires and the acute public hazard that they posed, emergency management authorities had to quickly marshal fire-fighters, equipment, and water resources through a collaborative network of federal, state, and local agencies, many of which were ill-prepared or understaffed. While weather and climate information, particularly indices of fire-burning potential, were closely studied and readily dispersed, there was a good deal of crisis-based learning that had to occur. One especially difficult obstacle to overcome was the supression of rapidly-spreading prairie fires. In the months following the fire-scorched drought, the state initiated or proposed a mix of organizational and planning changes to better equip itself to anticipate and suppress future fires. Among the key reforms were the development of a drought management task force, improved access to timely meteorological information, the adoption of a more reliable fire-burning index, and closer integration of state agencies with Oklahoma's Mesonet instrumental sensing network. In this paper, we will describe the wildfire outbreaks caused by the drought, and examine the organizational and institutional changes that were made to improve wildland fire suppression. In particular, we will examine the institutional setting that guided fire suppression activities before and after the drought and the role that improved access and utilization of meteorological information has played in reducing the fire danger risk. We will then examine the overall effectiveness of the reforms made in response to the 1995-96 drought in comparison with the state's planning readiness and performance in current wildfire suppression activities