West Texas Fires

[wall_cloud]

I realize its not the sexy type of weather related phenomena that people like to talk about and its not impacting large population centers but it is really amazing how large some of the active fires are. The total acreage on the current crop of fires is approaching 2 million acres. Fortunately, firefighters have worked diligently to save homes at the expense of graze land so not many occupied homes have been lost. I've only heard of one fatality (near Cisco I believe) but numerous head of cattle and horses have been killed. Oddly enough, one of the structures burned was the building that housed the NOAA Weather Radio transmitter that services San Angelo. We have a temporary 300 W transmitter going in tomorrow to cover us until a new 1000 W transmitter arrives.

Take a look around and appreciate how hard these firefighters are working. They have been at it non stop for days, some brought in from states that don't even border Texas.

MODIS real color image of burn scars:



McDonald Observatory:



Texas Forest Service working near Rotan:



Cattle fleeing from fire near Marfa:



The Wildcat fire north of San Angelo (from Robert Lee):



Smoke plumes from Friday:

[psyclone]

i think the active severe weather is pulling coverage from this important story. those pictures are scary. here's hoping for the best for the lone star state.

[ravyrn]

I was driving to the store and trying to figure out why the moon was so red last night. After seeing the sat pic of the smoke plumes, now I know why.

[southerngale]

Great, yet terrifying pics! I can't imagine being in my house and seeing fire that close. It has to be scary. There have been fires in this part of the state as well, but not that large.

I have a lot of relatives in your CWA and my aunt has a farm in Blanket. I've been praying for rain for all over Texas.

[Stephanie]

I hope that the cattle trying to escape were able to. They were fleeing towards a wire fence.

I hope and pray that rain will be in Texas's forecast very soon.