I am way way away from it to the southeast but we can already smell the smoke. From 20,000 acres burned yesterday morning to 60,000 last night, then from 100,000ac at daybreak today to 500,000 acres currently this morning. An hour ago, firefighters said it was burning at the rate of 2.5 football fields per second. 0% contained. Open, but rough dry country except for towns like Canadian, Fritch and nearby Amarillo.
The wind has died down some, but still pushing it at around 15mph and they are supposed to get some snow tonight but winds will pick back up tomorrow 20mph and higher. This single fire has burned more acreage in 2 days than all the wildfires in Tx 2023 combined and is 2nd largest ever in this state.
The wind is a beast. It's been windy as hell in west GA for 2-3 days. I hope y'all can catch a break. And yeah... We've got "no burn" warnings here. But it's supposed to rain and get cool again, today.
scrub and prairie. Between the time I went to physical therapy at 1pm and returned home at 2:30, the fire had burned another 350,000 acres. 1,330 sq miles. (for scale, Delaware has 2,500 s miles and Rhode Island has 1,550 sq miles.) I saw a video of the town of Fritch Tx. It's bad, but the wind here in West Central Texas has diminished some so maybe it has up North too and the fireteams can get a handle on this one. The only good thing about a fire that moves this fast is that it 'here and gone' before it has enough time to burn down every stick and structure in it's path.. Lts of buildings in Fritch and Canadian are scorched black on the outside walls but not burned to the ground. Wind tho, is forecast to return to that area tomorrow at 20-25mph with gusts up to 40mph.
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 02-28-2024).]
Drought kills the trees (and the brush) and then you get really high winds- there is nothing to do but get outta the way- fire/fuel/wind is un-stoppable.
My favorite spot in the world to go camping (Lassen Volcanic NP) was hit by the Dixie fire back in 2021- burned approx' a third of the park (Along with a lot of countryside outside the park.
That's a whole different animal. I can't imagine a brush fire covering such a large area.
This fire is unique, in that it is a single fire, but in the 2011 drought, from April 2011 thru Sept 2011, there were over 30,000 wildfires in Texas and burned a cumulative 4 million acres. This time of year is bad about wildfires anywhere on the southern great plains because the grasses are fost dried...dead grass and dry brush. Couple that with wind events that come with these late winter cold fronts and ya get what we're seeing in the panhandle. Large, fast moving firestorms.
3% contained with 1 million 80,000 acres burned. Nearly 1700 sq miles Looks like they may have had some rain and snow over night but not enough to help much.
They've had a few days of better firefighting weather and the wind has shifted back toward the burned area. And, the snowfall out in Calif had taken center stage for the news media as well as super tuesday and the usual politics talk.
Xcel really didn't have much choice, since a homeowner had pictures of the pole and line down when the Smokehouse Creek blaze was just beginning. Proving the company tho, didn't properly maintain their equipment may be harder. Winds in the panhandle are almost always blowing hard, with little but a few barbed wire fences between Texas and the Canadian border to slow the wind down. Wires swaying back and forth for an extended period of time exerts a lot of strain on even new poles. Not making excuses for them, but that region isn't like a town or neighborhood where lateral lines have a pole with a transformer every 150'. It's a pretty long span between poles out in rural regions. I have no idea what the spacing regs are on it tho.
