Srain Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 I-20 closed in the Midland area... BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED CIVIL EMERGENCY MESSAGE MIDLAND COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT RELAYED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND/ODESSA TX 355 PM CST SUN FEB 27 2011 ...CIVIL EMERGENCY MESSAGE... THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE MIDLAND COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT. THE PUBLIC IS REQUESTED TO STAY AWAY FROM WEST LOOP 250/INTERSTATE 20 AREA DUE TO SMOKE AND FIRE CONDITIONS IN THAT AREA. INTERSTATE 20 IS SHUTDOWN DUE TO EMERGENCY VEHICLES WORKING THE AREA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srain Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 Winds are kicking up dust in the Lubbock area... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srain Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 Major problems out near Amarillo, and a major fire near Midland also. WOUS44 KAMA 272153 CCA FRWAMA TXC381-280115- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED FIRE WARNING...CORRECTED AMARILLO/POTTER/RANDALL OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT RELAYED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX 349 PM CST SUN FEB 27 2011 THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE AMARILLO/POTTER/RANDALL OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT. A MANDATORY EVACUATION ORDER HAS BEEN ISSUED DUE TO A WILDFIRE THREATENING THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS: RICHLAND ACRES...RANCH ACRES...AND CANYON COUNTRY CLUB...AND THEN ALSO FOR TIMBERCREEK CANYON...PALISADES...TANGLE AIRE...AND LAKE TANGLEWOOD. RESIDENTS SHOULD EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. RESIDENT EVACUATING THE WILDFIRES IN THE WILLOW CREEK AREA SHOULD REPORT TO THE RECEIVING POINT AT THE PLEASANT VALLEY METHODIST CHURCH AT 316 VALLEY. THE RECEIVING POINT FOR THOSE RESIDENT EVACUATING FROM THE SOUTH WILDFIRES IS THE COWBOY CHURCH AT WASHINGTON STREET AND LOOP 335 (HOLLYWOOD ROAD). $$ SCHNEIDER Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srain Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 Reports of Firefighter injuries near Wheeler, TX which is just W of the TX/OK border, N of I-40... http://myhighplains.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=180856 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srain Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 Visible shot showing the dust and smoke in W and NW TX... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OHSnow Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Pretty impressive out there. I see Wichita Falls shattered its daily record high by 10 degrees. Guadalupe Mountains was reporting 62 mph sustained winds and gusts to 84 mph earlier. Lots of blowing dust even into Oklahoma and Kansas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msp Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 near san angelo, the town of barnhart is being evac'ed due to an approaching wildfire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXWXCHX Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 near san angelo, the town of barnhart is being evac'ed due to an approaching wildfire Holee guacamole I just saw this... good catch MSP http://www.gosanange...ounties-prompt/ EXCERPT SAN ANGELO, Texas — Severe grass fires around the area has prompted a few public safety outlets to call for evacuation Sunday evening. The Irion County Sheriff's Department urged the residents of Barnhart, 50 miles west of San Angelo, to evacuate the city. There are two buses stationed at the Barnhart Community Center that will be shuttling evacuees to the Irion County Community Center in Mertzon. END EXCERPT I believe the models are underestimating the strength of this system; the winds appear to be sustaining at 10-15 mph above forecast levels in many places... EDIT: Winds have now shifted (from the north) sending the blaze south of Barnhardt... evacuations on hold for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wall_cloud Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I'm just throwing some thoughts down from my travels today so ignore my rambling and jumping around! I drove from Angelfire, NM back home to San Angelo, TX today (through Amarillo, Lubbock and Big Spring). I worked at the WFO in Amarillo for nearly 5 years and saw some bad stuff including the 2006 wildfires which had double digit fatalities and burned around 1 million acres. It doesn't appear that the scope of any individual fires is that big today but man the conditions are as ripe as any I ever experienced. Fires were ongoing when I arrived at WFO AMA just after 1 PM with Fire Warnings (evacuations) issued within the hour. Winds had gusted to 69 mph while I was in town (GRADIENT WIND! WOW!) with a relative humidity of 6%. Now add in the effects of temporary restrictions in visibility to near zero at times and it just sucked. I had dropped by to say hi but they were so busy that I needed to get out of the way. we actually had a semi to our left almost tip over right in front of us (like 20 yards in front of us) on Loop 335 in eastern Amarillo. luckily, it tipped back onto all four wheels before going all the way over. that would have been ugly. the drive from Amarillo, to Lubbock to Big Spring was pretty miserable. significant crosswinds with blowing dust and smoke. visibilities ranged from 2 miles all the way down to zero. We ran into more fires along hwy 87 in Big Spring. These fires were to the west of town along I-20. the community of 25,000 was shrouded in smoke and it was hard to breathe even just driving through. Very surreal. We finally made it back to San Angelo where its much more quiet, although there are some fires about 40-50 miles southwest of town. This has resulted in some smoke across the area but its fairly quiet down here. It was amazing that for a clear day I didn't see the sun after noon until it was about to set after 6 pm. Fire weather is an interesting aspect of meteorology that gets lost in many mets' experiences. Its pretty common to see these conditions (although tapered down of course) in the high plains and west TX. The winds are incredible but the rough terrain (yes, west TX isn't flat contrary to popular belief) makes is that much worse. pray for the firefighters and the homes/lives in the path of these fires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wall_cloud Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Holee guacamole I just saw this... good catch MSP http://www.gosanange...ounties-prompt/ EXCERPT END EXCERPT I believe the models are underestimating the strength of this system; the winds appear to be sustaining at 10-15 mph above forecast levels in many places... hey chx...my advice is to ignore the surface winds provided by the models. I focus more on the 850mb winds for strengths but you can also clue in on the 700mb winds for days of deep mixing. the surface winds are ALWAYS underdone in these situations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXWXCHX Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 hey chx...my advice is to ignore the surface winds provided by the models. I focus more on the 850mb winds for strengths but you can also clue in on the 700mb winds for days of deep mixing. the surface winds are ALWAYS underdone in these situations. Thank you for the hint! It's nice to have someone else chime in to confirm that I'm not just imagining things: the winds really weren't forecast to be this high, or the temps to be this warm this deep into the event... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wall_cloud Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Thank you for the hint! It's nice to have someone else chime in to confirm that I'm not just imagining things: the winds really weren't forecast to be this high, or the temps to be this warm this deep into the event... are you claiming the models didn't forecast them this high or that the mets didn't forecast them this high? If its the latter I will disagree wholeheartedly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_B Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Sitting here in Wise County, the dry line has moved through and coincidentally the smoke and dust has moved into the area as well. Many of our departments in the western part of the county were toned out for smoke investigations because of the smoke and dust from west Texas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXWXCHX Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 are you claiming the models didn't forecast them this high or that the mets didn't forecast them this high? If its the latter I will disagree wholeheartedly. Models, not mets... the mets called the fire danger two days ago, so I'd be remiss in snarking at them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXWXCHX Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Sitting here in Wise County, the dry line has moved through and coincidentally the smoke and dust has moved into the area as well. Many of our departments in the western part of the county were toned out for smoke investigations because of the smoke and dust from west Texas. Wow... good luck with your call outs tonight! Fire Depts will probably get paged out a LOT tonight; everyone is antsy about the fires. Temperatures here have gone up slightly - a degree in the 30 mins or so - but humidity is 87% so we are still okay out here. A band of storms has developed, currently between Brownwood and Waco; we'll see if the precipitation helps our area avoid some of the fire issues behind the dry line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_B Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Wow... good luck with your call outs tonight! Fire Depts will probably get paged out a LOT tonight; everyone is antsy about the fires. Temperatures here have gone up slightly - a degree in the 30 mins or so - but humidity is 87% so we are still okay out here. A band of storms has developed, currently between Brownwood and Waco; we'll see if the precipitation helps our area avoid some of the fire issues behind the dry line. Luckily our dispatchers and departments called out to the counties to the west to verify what we're seeing here, so they were able to cancel those call outs for those smoke investigations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srain Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 HGX Issues a Red Flag Warning for all of our forecast area until 6PM today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Lizard Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 0Z GFS ensemble means rainfall looks remarkably depressing the next two weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Lizard Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/28/texas.wildfires/index.html?hpt=T2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXWXCHX Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 http://www.cnn.com/2...dex.html?hpt=T2 Poor folks out west; this is starting so early... I keep looking at the pasture and seeing the green up under that tinder-dry dead grass... thinking, come on baby, grow a little. I'm going to go out and knock down the tall forbs from last fall tomorrow, so the vetch can grow up faster and thicker. It may buy us a little time before the summer onslaught... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srain Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 Bump...Texas is burning this afternoon... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msp Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 cool texas wildfire map http://txforestservice.tamu.edu/main/default.aspx?dept=news&news_coll=video_gallery&id=5662 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Lizard Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 Possum Kingdom Lake, over 20,000 acres, 30 homes gone, 200 hundred more evacuated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srain Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 wall_cloud is busy... BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED FIRE WARNING TOM GREEN COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY SAN ANGELO TEXAS RELAYED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN ANGELO TX 356 PM CDT FRI APR 15 2011 THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE TOM GREEN COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY SAN ANGELO TEXAS. A MANDATORY EVACUATION IS IN EFFECT FOR PORTIONS OF TOM GREEN COUNTY NORTH OF SAN ANGELO AND EAST OF GRAPE CREEK DUE TO AN APPROACHING WILDFIRE. THE AFFECTED AREAS INCLUDE LOCATIONS BETWEEN US HIGHWAY 87 AND US HIGHWAY 277 NORTH OF FARM TO MARKET ROAD 2105. THIS INCLUDES QUAIL VALLEY AND RED CREEK. THE SAN ANGELO COLISEUM IS STANDING UP AS A TEMPORARY SHELTER FOR THOSE DISPLACED BY THESE EVACUATIONS. $$ JOHNSON Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srain Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORT WORTH TX 358 PM CDT FRI APR 15 2011 TXZ091-100>102-115>117-129-141-152200- MONTAGUE TX-JACK TX-WISE TX-YOUNG TX-PALO PINTO TX-PARKER TX- STEPHENS TX-EASTLAND TX-COMANCHE TX- 358 PM CDT FRI APR 15 2011 ...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR... COMANCHE COUNTY EASTLAND COUNTY JACK COUNTY MONTAGUE COUNTY PALO PINTO COUNTY PARKER COUNTY STEPHENS COUNTY WISE COUNTY YOUNG COUNTY VERY STRONG AND GUSTY NORTHWEST WINDS ARE OCCURRING ACROSS THE ADVISORY AREA. FREQUENT GUSTS OVER 40 MPH...WITH OCCASIONAL GUSTS OVER 50 MPH...WILL CONTINUE IN THESE AREAS THROUGH THE AFTERNOON. NUMEROUS DANGEROUS FIRES ARE OCCURRING...AND DUE TO THE LOW HUMIDITIES AND STRONG WINDS FIRE OFFICIALS ARE CONDUCTING EVACUATIONS. BE PREPARED TO QUICKLY EVACUATE IF YOUR COUNTY OFFICIALS REQUEST IT. ROAD CLOSURES ARE ALSO OCCURRING. IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOT TO DRIVE AROUND BARRICADES...YOU MAY BE DRIVING RIGHT INTO A FIRE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srain Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 Not good... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msp Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 definitely is hazy here. no more bright blue sky like earlier in the day. rotan and gorman both evac'ed, 1 firefighter dead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Lizard Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 18 homes in Austin. Apparent arsonist in a field near the homes. C-130s dropping retardant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srain Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 E-mail from Jeff: If last Sunday was a bad fire weather day, the last 3 days have been even worse especially Friday and Saturday. Several new fires developed last Friday and Saturday and continue to burn out of control this morning. Fires have become increasingly more dangerous over the past few weeks as vegetations continues to dry resulting in hotter and larger fires than in the previous weeks. Fires have exhibited growth into the crown (tops) of trees which results in fast forward spread and dangerous/ineffective ground control. Fires of this nature are typically seen in the western US and California compared to the brush and grass/rangeland fires over Texas. Heavy air support is needed to contain such fires. Large Fires Update: Possum Kingdom Fire: Fire jumped containment lines early Friday due to 40-50mph and burned 45,000 acres. 200 homes were threatened, 31 were destroyed, 1 fatality. Fire remains uncontained. Wildcate Fire (San Angelo): 125,000 acres burned north of San Angelo. 400 homes are threatened. Fire is 10% contained. Wichita Falls Fire: comprised of 3 separate fires. 11,700 acres burned. Hundreds of homes threatened, 20 destroyed. Fire is 80% contained Cooper MT Ranch Fire (Near Camp Springs): 152,000 acres burned, 4 homes destroyed. Fire is 50% contained. Rockhouse/Marfa Fire: 182,007 acres burned. 23 homes and 2 businesses destroyed. In Fort Davis. Extensive efforts continue to bring this fire under control by air and ground crews. 200 fire fighters are working on burn out operations on the western flank of the fire. Numerous heavy air tankers and helicopters are being used. Swenson Fire: 120,000 acres burned. Fire breached containment lines yesterday on the SE flank. Hickman Fire (Midland): 16,500 acres burned. 98% contained. 34 homes burned and 62 damaged. Eastland Fire (Carbon City): 3,000 acres burning, 95% contained. 1200 homes were threatened. South Austin Fire: Grass fire rapidly grew upscale into a brush fire south of the City of Austin yesterday afternoon. 10 homes were burned and over 100 homes were threatened. Locally: Tomball Fire: Fire developed Saturday in heavy brush along Willow Creek and FM 2920. A mobile home park and several homes were threatened, none were lost Hardin County: 3,000 acre fire is burning in heavy pine forest north of Beaumont. TX Forest Service is actively cutting fire lines and using air support to bring the fire under control Trinity County: 1200 acre fire around Livingston continues to burn. Several homes were threatened on Sunday. As of yesterday afternoon 11 forest fires were burning in SE TX all in Polk, Trinity, Houston, Walker, and Brazos counties requiring TX Forest Service support. An additional five grass fires burned on Saturday and Sunday in Houston, Burleson, Wharton, and Jackson counties, but were able to be brought under control by local fire departments. In the last 7 days 217 additional fires have developed burning a total of 730,659 acres. Since January 1st, almost 5800 fires have burned 1.2 million acres across the state of Texas. Ongoing Fire Activity Map (note the large increase in fires burning in the pine forest over east and SE TX): Weather Outlook: We should finally see some relief for the fire operations as Gulf moisture has increased over the region in the last 24 hours on southerly winds. While the moisture helps limit fire start up, the strong south winds will fan already ongoing fires. Strong winds on Sunday resulted in rapid fire spread and erratic behavior and jumping of fire containment lines. Winds will remain strong today and Tuesday across the entire state out of the south and southwest. West TX dry line will mix eastward to I-35 on Tuesday afternoon and may be the focus for a few thunderstorms is strong capping can be overcome. Current thinking is that the cap will hold strong over the region and thunderstorms will not be able to form this far south. Storms that do develop will likely produce lightening that may induce additional fires as seen last Thursday night. A slightly better shot at rainfall may come Wednesday afternoon as a cool front sinks into SE TX and stalls. While still strong the capping looks to weaken slightly and combined with strong heating may be enough to produce a few thunderstorms. Anything that does develop will be fairly isolated, but it is the best shot we have as the following period looks dry through the weekend. Drought conditions continue to worsen across the entire region and little rain is forecast over the next 7 days. Vegetation health is starting to greatly suffer and lake/water supply system are continuing to decline. For the month of April BUSH IAH has only had .11 of an inch of rainfall, the previous driest April on record had .33 of an inch of rainfall. It is even worse at Sugar Land and Richmond where only a trace of rain has fallen and at Wharton only .67 of an inch has fallen since Feb 1st. Voluntary water restrictions have been put into effect for the cities of New Waverly, Huntsville, and Riverside until future notice. Lake Texana in Jackson County has fallen to 71% of capacity with Lake Somerville at 82%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msp Posted April 18, 2011 Author Share Posted April 18, 2011 fire warning just north of san angelo... evacs issued, us hwy 277 closed nasty fire conditions : 100/28... 8% RH... winds gusting to near 30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.