Texas wildfires-Updated

[Garnet1995]

cant figure out how to get pic from image shack to here

[somethingfunny]

I ran into this on my way home today (the Interstate 30/635 interchange in Mesquite)

[img]http://i55.tinypic.com/1zc0fm0.jpg[/i mg]

[img]http://i51.tinypic.com/w9ffxs.jpg[/im g]

My cell phone doesn't have the best camera so that's as fast as I could take shots without stopping on the bridge and gawking/choking on smoke. There was a pickup on fire on the shoulder of 635 (behind the thick smoke) .... those flames burned up the whole area between the highway and the on-ramp, but was extinguished before it could jump the onramp.

I think your inspection sticker is out of date

LOL yes it is. As long as it's running fine I'd rather pay for a ticket than a new catalytic converter.

[vbhoutex]

BASTROP has another fire!!!

Bastrop County Office of Emergency Management
Update: Fire has been name Old Potato Fire. Fire is estimated at 500-600 acs and spreading north toward Herron Trail and 2336 Camp Swift. TFS has several aircraft resources fighting fire including DC-10. Herron Trail and Oak Hill Cemetary Rd to 2336 have been evacuated

[Shoshana]

I could see the smoke from our house.

[vbhoutex]

From Jeff Lindner this am:

Bastrop County (Old Potato Rd Fire):

Almost exactly to the date of the devastating Bastrop Complex Fire which burned 1649 homes, a new fire started yesterday about 3 miles north of the northern end of the previous fire along FM 2336 near Camp Swift. The fire has burned 1,000 acres since yesterday afternoon requiring eh evacuation of 30 homes and is 25% contained. TFS has 7 dozers, 20 state and federal fire trucks, and 11 volunteer departments working this fire along with 4 fixed wing aircraft and 2 helicopters. The DC-10 super heavy air tanker was used on this fire until sunset Tuesday dropping 11,700 gallons of slurry.

[vbhoutex]

From Jeff Lindner this am:

Bastrop County (Old Potato Rd Fire):

Heavy air support on Wednesday helped to bring the fire under increasing containment with the fire now 50% contained. The fire has burned about 320 acres in heavy pine forest (earlier estimate of 1000 acres was reduced Wednesday with aerial mapping) 7 miles NE of the town of Bastrop. Over 100 fire fighters from several agencies including GA and OR are working this fire along with at least 6 aircraft heavily involved in air supersession efforts. Multiple dozer crews are working to cut and maintain fire lines, and so far the air attack support has greatly helped control the spread of this fire.

[Stephanie]

I first heard about the rainfall that was affecting Texas this weekend when I saw that the ACLS was rained out, of all things. Great news!

Nice looking picture of Texas's cumulative 48 hour rainfall totals:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather- ... 2011-10-10

[Shoshana]

Friends drove in from CO Friday.

They were amazed when they saw regular people pulling off the road to fight grass fires on the median instead of calling 911. I told them the people do call but it's so dry that they were doing what they could till the firemen got there.

[vbhoutex]

From Jeff Lindner's morning email:

Fire Weather:

Big concern will be fire weather Tuesday and again on Wednesday. Near critical to critical conditions appear likely on Tuesday as very strong winds and lower RH combine with dead/dry fuels from the ongoing drought. Winds will rapidly increase into the 15-25mph sustained range by mid morning Tuesday with gust to 30-40mph by early afternoon. Winds of this magnitude greatly increases the threat of power line starts from tree limbs rubbing lines or lines arcing in the wind…this is similar to the Labor Day weekend starts of several of those fires. Afternoon RH will fall to less than 30% across the entire region.

While fine fuels (grasses) have greened some with the recent rainfall, the larger ladder and canopy fuels remain extremely dry and capable of fast and hot burning. ERC values remain very high over much of eastern TX with pines that have dried. Greener finer fuels may help mitigate some of the potential starts, but any fire that does get started and gets off the ground into the ladder and tree canopies will burn very quickly given the low RN and very strong winds. Threat will be high for crowning and long lasting crown runs especially in pine areas. Ground operations will be extremely difficult given the high potential for rapid forward motions, forward spotting, and breaching on containment lines. Air operations will be affected by the strong winds and some aircraft may be grounded.