Wildfires

[BigMattFromTexas]

There's been several wildfires in Texas lately. One in Colorado City, TX, it destroyed 13 homes, and burnt over 13,000 acres. And other fires have burnt up to 120,000 acres. The town of Barnhart was hit, during 30-40 mph winds.
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/mar/01/west-texas-deals-with-wildfire-devastation/
Also Old Time Pit BBQ here in Angelo burnt down, I know the owners.. Here's the news link.
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/mar/02/san-angelo-barbecue-restaurant-catches-fire/
BigMatt

[Alex]

Weather Underground's Jeff Masters blogged about the fires in both Florida and Texas today.

[mgk920]

Unfortunately, periodic fires are a part of the nature of those areas.  Prairielands, forestland here in Wisconsin and elsewhere, the brush areas of Florida, the California hills and so on, everything in nature in those places evolved to require it.

The best thing that can be done is to design buildings in those places so as to be as fire-resistant as possible.

Mike

[Truvelo]

Is March a little early in the Year for this sort of thing? It only seems like yesterday when there were reports of record low temperatures and snow drifts.

[Chris]

Actually fire danger is greatest during the winter, so I've read. Something about low humidity and often high winds.

[J N Winkler]

It varies.  Fire danger is worst in southern Kansas during the late winter.  In the Rocky Mountain states, however, the peak fire season is midsummer.

[BigMattFromTexas]

It hasn't rained here since the day of 90°, thunderstorms, sleet, and snow.. Which was in January.. So it's dry.. Pretty much asking for fire.
BigMatt

[DeaconG]

The Iron Horse fire in southern Volusia and northern Brevard County is finally contained:

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110308/BREAKINGNEWS/110308019/Division-Forestry-crews-head-home-from-Iron-Horse-fire?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

[Scott5114]

I'm guessing there was some sort of wildfire in Central OK today, since the weather radio came on around 3 PM with the robotic voice indicating that "THE WILDFIRE IS OUT OF CONTROL. EVACUATE IMMEDATELY IF YOU ARE BETWEEN HIWASSEE ROAD AND..."

[algorerhythms]

I'm guessing there was some sort of wildfire in Central OK today, since the weather radio came on around 3 PM with the robotic voice indicating that "THE WILDFIRE IS OUT OF CONTROL. EVACUATE IMMEDATELY IF YOU ARE BETWEEN HIWASSEE ROAD AND..."

Of what I heard about it there was a pretty large fire in the Goldsby area which was causing smoke clouds to pass over Norman.

Actually fire danger is greatest during the winter, so I've read. Something about low humidity and often high winds.

Low humidity and high winds, and the grasses go dormant during the winter which makes them easier to burn.

[BigMattFromTexas]

There's been several grass fires around Texas this weekend.. In fact there was one 15 miles from my house.. There have been probably 5-6 grass fires around Angelo, and Tom Green County.
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/apr/11/burma-road-fire-racing-toward-san-angelo/
One around Aspermont, TX (North of Abilene). This one's the largest in the U.S. now...
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2011/apr/10/145swenson-fire-now-largest-in-the-us/

Last night we got the first "rain" in 2 months, which was dried up within an hour of falling.. We got 1/100 of an inch.
Now we have no rain in our forecast, and we set local record heat on Saturday, at 100°...
BigMatt

[realjd]

It is early for Florida. Our peak fire season is usually toward the end of May. That's the end of our dry season. With the record cold the past two winters, there's a lot of dead vegetation just waiting to burn.

EDIT: Just realized this was an older thread. The Florida fires referred to earlier have been out for a while. Regardless, I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't a busy fire season for us again this year.

[BigMattFromTexas]

Yet another wildfire about 6-10 miles North of San Angelo, and moving Southeast... So this should be interesting..
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/apr/14/wildfire-may-force-evacuation-north-tom-green-coun/
BigMatt

[Alps]

Yet another wildfire about 6-10 miles North of San Angelo, and moving Southeast... So this should be interesting..
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/apr/14/wildfire-may-force-evacuation-north-tom-green-coun/
BigMatt

All over the Mid-South (at least from New Mexico on through TX to Oklahoma), I've been seeing "Fire Danger Extremely High" and even VMS deployed just to say "Extreme Fire Danger." I'm glad there aren't a whole rash of them through here.

[BigMattFromTexas]

This latest one the "Wildcat Fire" has burned estimated to 199,000 acres, almost burned into a place called Grape Creek, it's dangered Tennyson, TX, and Robert Lee, TX. It's only about 10% contained.
It's a bad one.. Probably about 450,000-500,000 acres of Texas has burned already. And Texas isn't that known for wildfires..
He's some pictures of the smoke from the Wildcat fire:





This one is from the Encino 2 fire:

*All taken from a phone camera, so not the BEST quality*
**UPDATE: Over 1,500,000 acres of Texas has been burned. There's been over 7,000 fires reported, and 244 homes have been destroyed.. It's bad.
BigMatt

[BigMattFromTexas]

Two people who were looking at the wildfires North of Angelo, they crashed down and both people died..
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/southwest/view/20110418plane_crash_kills_2_sightseeing_west_texas_fires/srvc=home&position=recent
BigMatt

[mightyace]

^^^

With all the air in motion being drawn into a fire and then upward due to heat, a wildfire seems like a place that you don't want to get near unless you have to.  Being USAF Lieutenants, they should have known better.

Even so, still sad.

[BigMattFromTexas]

**UPDATE: Wildcat fire, the 150,000 acre fire, is at 30% containment!
This is a HUGE step upward from going from 10%, to 0%, to 10%, and up to 30%. This is a crazy fire.. We haven't had a good rain since February..

Please keep West Texas in your prayers. Texas has over 7,800 fires this year.. Please pray.
BigMatt

[BigMattFromTexas]

Two new fires since the last post
The Wildcat is about 95% contained, but we had one in our oil drilling part of the San Angelo area. And another one South, bear Christoval, it threatened about 75 structures.
One structure did burn in Wildcat.

212 of Texas' 254 counties are in burn bans, we haven't had actual rain since February. It's the driest season since 1895. One of our major rivers has already dried up completely.
Lake Nasworthy went from around 85%, to 81%, to now 79%.
O.C. Fisher - 1%
Twin Buttes - 16%

O.C. Fisher was once busting over the dam, this wasn't in my lifetime, but in my parents. Now it's just a little pond, full of the nasty Mesquite trees that infect all of West Texas.

Please pray for the entire state of Texas for rain, we need it bad. Also keep the volunteer fire fighters in your prayers too. We've had two die already. It's a shame that legally SAFD (San Angelo Fire Dept.) can't go help. Thank you.
BigMatt

[agentsteel53]

It's a shame that legally SAFD (San Angelo Fire Dept.) can't go help. Thank you.
BigMatt

what; how does this work?

can we build sandbags out of legislators to contain the flames?

[mightyace]

Please pray for the entire state of Texas for rain, we need it bad.

I wish I could give you some of ours.  I drove into Columbia today and the Duck River appears to be above flood stage.  Fortunately for me, no tornadoes hit anywhere near me.