Fogbow

The Smokehouse Creek Fire, which started in Hutchinson County north of Stinnett, is approximately 40,000 acres with 0% containment according to Texas A&M Forest Service. "The fire that started north of Stinnett has moved east across what we call the Turkey Track Ranch and the Adobe Walls area. This fire is burning in the river bottom that makes it difficult to fight without the air tankers. Texas Forrest Service has been contacted. Multiple agencies and an incident command unit is on the way," said Hansford County Office of Emergency Management.

Evacuations have been ordered for the Gage and Shattuck area after a large wildfire called the "Smokehouse Creek Fire" crossed over from Texas and into northwestern Oklahoma.

Woodward County Emergency Manager Matt Lehenbauer said a 911 call was placed in Ellis County, saying a person was trapped in a basement with their home on fire. Crews were working to help those people as wildfires continue.

A​ fast moving wildfire in the Texas Panhandle has burned more than 300 square miles of land in just over 24 hours and left people trapped in a small town after mandatory evacuations were ordered.

Called t​he Smokehouse Creek Fire, it was reported late Monday afternoon in Hutchinson County, about 35 miles northeast of Amarillo. By around 5 p.m. Tuesday it had spread to 312 square miles and into neighboring Hemphill County.

"T​he fire is being fueled by winds gusting more than 60 mph," weather.com digital meteorologist Jonathan Belles said. "At the same time, the humidity there was as low as 16 percent and temperatures unseasonably warm in the mid-70s."

T​he fire was one of several burning across the region. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties impacted by the blazes.

At least three growing wildfires were threatening communities in the Texas Panhandle as of Tuesday night, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service Incident Viewer.

So far, nearly 320,000 acres have been burned by the fires.

The threat has sparked evacuation orders and shelter-in-place advisories for several communities in the region.

Here are the current wildfire statuses:

Smokehouse Creek Fire

Hutchinson County
250,000 acres
0% contained
Windy Deuce Fire

Moore County
38,000 acres
20% contained
Grape Vine Creek Fire

Gray County
30,000 acres
20% contained

A medical system in Canadian, Texas, says it has safely evacuated its hospital patients and the residents of two residential care facilities as wildfires threaten the area.

The Hemphill County Hospital District relocated its inpatients, as well as residents at Mesa View Senior Living and Mesa View Assisted Living, to the city of Pampa, about 50 miles to the southwest of Canadian, according to a Facebook post.

Canadian was under a mandatory evacuation order Tuesday afternoon, but officials later recommended residents shelter in place due to road closures, the Hemphill County Sheriff's office said on Facebook.

Towering columns of smoke approached an 80,000-acre ranch outside of Stinnett, Texas, Tuesday, where employees stayed behind to move cattle out of the blaze's path, a ranch worker's spouse told CNN.

“We cut the fences and unfortunately had to get out due to firefighters having to go save communities," said Katlyn Butler, whose husband works at Turkey Track Ranch.

Ranch workers had no time to evacuate livestock as the rapidly growing Smokehouse Creek Fire tore toward them.

Video shared by Butler shows a group of cattle running in the opposite direction of plumes of glowing smoke and fire. They trampled over tufts of brittle, dry grasses that may serve as more fuel for the wildfire.

“We’ve lost cattle. Not sure what is alive and isn’t," Butler said.

In a Facebook post Tuesday evening, the city of Fritch — roughly 30 miles northeast of Amarillo — warned residents who were south of Highway 136 to "EVACUATE NOW," warning the flames had jumped the road.

City officials also urged residents not to use a lot of water to help with firefighters' efforts to battle the flames.

"Pressure is down on the city water wells due to loss of electricity. We are currently working to resolve this issue. PLEASE keep water usage to a minimum, so we can keep pressure up enough to fill fire trucks," officials said in a post.

More than 200 people are sheltering in a church in Fritch, Texas, after raging wildfires forced people to flee their homes Tuesday afternoon, church leaders say.

"We have a lot of people at the facility who confirmed they lost their homes," Celebration Family Church pastor Dwight Kirksey told CNN. "Of course, they're devastated and heartbroken."

A team of more than 50 volunteers has been consoling the displaced community members, said Kirksey, who also serves as Hutchinson County commissioner.

"They've been comforting the needs of the heart with hugs and embraces and letting them know that they're here with us and alive and we'll get through this."

Wildfires ripping through swaths of the Texas Panhandle on Tuesday were encroaching on roads, filling the air with blinding smoke and lighting up the night's sky, according to video from CNN and local officials.

Video taken by CNN from a plane arriving in Amarillo, Texas, Tuesday night shows flames streaking across the land below.

No fire had reached Amarillo as of 6 p.m., the fire department said. But a little under two hours later, the department said it and other agencies were battling flames that were moving south toward the city on both sides of Highway 136. At least three active fires are burning north of the city.

The Smokehouse Creek Fire has burned 500,000 acres since igniting Monday afternoon, making it the second-largest wildfire on record in Texas, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

It remains completely uncontained and is likely to grow further.

The largest wildfire was the East Amarillo Complex fire in 2006, which consumed more than 900,000 acres, according to Texas A&M.

The Smokehouse Creek Fire grew from a 40,000-acre fire Tuesday morning to a 500,000-acre monster as of Wednesday morning.

Since the fire started on Monday afternoon, it has spread at an average rate of 150 football fields every minute.

The fire has now charred an area of Texas land more than half the size of Rhode Island and 11 times the size of Washington, DC.

The city of Fritch, Texas, is asking for outside help to bring their water system back online after a massive wildfire knocked out power.

City officials said in a Facebook post Wednesday morning that they need a 75,000-volt industrial generator “to help get our water back up.”

The fast-moving fires in the Texas Panhandle have left some farmers and ranchers scrambling to protect their property.

"I am deeply concerned about the devastating wildfires raging through the Texas Panhandle," Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a statement.

It is unclear how many homes and businesses have been impacted.

Firefighting resources are stretched thin as emergency personnel respond to several fires stretching across the Texas Panhandle and into Oklahoma, Johnson said. "We’re just doing the best we can," she added.

The city, which is the seat of Hemphill County, was under an evacuation order Tuesday until road closures prompted officials to ask people to shelter in place. Many people were able to leave the city, but about 50 were sheltering at a local church, Johnson said.

At least five growing wildfires were threatening communities in the Texas Panhandle as of early Wednesday, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service Incident Viewer.

So far, more than 500,000 acres have been burned by the fires, according to the forest service.

The extreme conditions driving the explosive growth of the Texas fires have calmed after a cold front moved through Tuesday evening, but they won't last.

Temperatures were in the 70s with 40 to 45 mph sustained winds and gusts up to 65 mph at the time of the most extreme fire growth Tuesday.

Here's how the weather will play out in the Texas Panhandle fire zone in the coming days:

Wednesday: High temperatures will be in the 50s with light winds. The winds will begin to pick up again this evening, creating new challenges.

Thursday: A very light rain and snow mix is possible. Any snow accumulation would remain below 0.5 inches. The high temperature will remain in the 50s, but winds will be stronger, 15 to 20 mph with wind gusts up to 30 mph.

Friday through the weekend: Dangerous fire weather conditions return as temperatures rise into the upper 70s, drier air arrives and winds increase to 20 to 30 mph, with even stronger gusts.

The massive fire had spread to more than 1,500 square miles by midday Wednesday, charring a large swath of the Texas Panhandle region.

An active firefight could rage on for days as fires continue to grow and with more adverse weather on the horizon.

“We don’t have all the fires out. We are still currently fighting fires,” Troy Schwiegerath, Emergency Management Coordinator for City of Pampa and Gray County Texas told CNN.

Pampa and Gray County are located northeast of Amarillo.

“It’s going to burn forever. We’ve going to have three more days of fire,” Troy said.

Schwiegerath says the Texas Forest Service is there in en mass helping fight the fires.

“Thank God the winds stopped,” Troy said. He says firefighters were able to get a plan together and save the city of Pampa last night. Other towns weren’t so lucky.

There are no injuries or deaths in Gray County, Schwiegerath said. It will take days to get an accurate count on what has burned, he said.

“We lost cattle, we lost grass, we lost a fence,” Schwiegerath said. “We just had a meeting this morning to come together, city and County officials. We’re trying to get organized.”

Troy says local leaders are trying to set up a system to receive donations.

“We need cash donations. Feed and hay. Fencing material type,” Troy said.

The cattle industry is big in Gray County. Troy says they have no idea how many cattle were lost to the fires.

Paul Huttner weather
@paulhuttnerwx

Oh boy, here we go on wildfire smoke season in Minnesota. In February.
Those massive Texas wildfires will send a plume of smoke into Minnesota on Thursday.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/02/2 ... a-thursday

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 6:41 pm Any idea of the cause? (Lightning, accident, electrical, arson?)

neonzx wrote: ↑Thu Feb 29, 2024 4:49 am

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 6:41 pm Any idea of the cause? (Lightning, accident, electrical, arson?)

Gov Abbott didn't rake? Jewish space lasers?

The catastrophic infernos ripping across the Texas Panhandle have killed at least one person and threaten to destroy more homes, cattle and livelihoods as the second-largest wildfire in state history engulfs more land every minute.

In Texas and Oklahoma, the Smokehouse Creek Fire has already scorched about 900,000 acres – larger than the entire state of Rhode Island. The vast majority of its destruction has been in northern Texas, where 83-year-old Joyce Blankenship was killed by the inferno in Hutchinson County, her family said.

“The house was gone,” her grandson, Nathan Blankenship, said. “There was no way she could’ve gotten out.”

The deadly inferno is one of five massive wildfires sweeping through the region, with no end in sight.

Despite the chance of light precipitation Thursday, dry air and ferocious winds are expected to return Friday and into the weekend – likely fueling the flames.

The Smokehouse Creek Fire has grown to more than 1 million acres in Texas, making it the largest fire on record in the state – surpassing the East Amarillo Complex fire in 2006. It is just 3% contained, fire officials said Thursday morning.

The fire has also burned at least 31,590 acres in Oklahoma as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the Oklahoma Forestry Service.



Despite the chance of light precipitation Thursday, dry air and ferocious winds are expected to return Friday and into the weekend – likely fueling the flames.

Latest developments
• Power outages are a major concern as North Plains Electric Cooperative said it has “approximately 115 miles of line to rebuild.”

• In Hemphill County alone, 400,000 acres are burned, scores of homes have been destroyed and thousands of cattle have died, Hemphill County AgriLife Extension agent Andy Holloway said. More than 85% of cattle in Texas are raised in the Panhandle, according to agricultural officials.