Texas Wildfires – Update April 30

Texas wildfires consume 2.1m acres

RED FLAG WARNINGS ISSUED for PARTS of 9 STATES

About 7,000 fires scorch more than 2 million acres, 1,132 structures

NWS has issued Red Flag Warnings for parts of California, Nevada, Arizona,  New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Florida.

In the past seven days, TFS has responded to 96 fires for 119,026 acres.

YTD Totals

• Fires: 6,973
• Acres burned: 2,124,343
• Structures lost: 1,132 [Texas fires destroy 1370 homes]

Click image to enter NWS portal.

Fatalities

• Two firefighters have lost their lives, including one near Lubbock who was killed yesterday.
• Two sightseers were killed as their plane  circled over fires Tuesday.

Cattle and Horses

NO official figures have been released so far. However,  FIRE-EARTH estimates that up to 50,000 heads of cattle and horses may have been killed or seriously injured as a result of the deadly fires since beginning of the year.

“Between 400,000 and 500,000 cattle have been injured by the fire but survived,” a report said.

Dry Conditions Decimating Texas Crops

Texas farmers produce about 100 million bushels of wheat on average each year, but they would be lucky to produce  a third of that amount this year, says Texas AgriLife Extension Service .

“This year’s crop condition ratings show about 40 percent of the Texas crop in very poor condition, which compares with 65 percent very poor in March of 2006 and 53 percent very poor in May of 2009,” said Dr. Mark Welch, AgriLife Extension economist specializing in grain marketing and policy.

Related Links

• Texas wildfires consume nearly 2m acres
• Texas wildfire conditions may worsen
• Texas Wildfires Scorch 1.8 Million Acres
• TEXAS FIRES – April 21 Update
• Texas Fires: More Towns Evacuated

• TEXAS ON FIRE
• Wildfires Devastating Texas; Gov. Perry Tours
• Local officials in a parched Texas county have resorted to asking their constituents to pray for rain
• Drought sears farmers’ hopes: They had wanted to take advantage of record prices for commodities
• U.S. Agrees to Help Fight Mexico Wildfires

• Global Disaster Forecast – UPDATE 17 Mar
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• Extreme fire danger, continued major flooding in the US

• US Wildfire Pattern Consistent with Drought
• National Fire Stats Falsified?
• Denver wildfire forces evacuation of 10,000 homes
• Wildfires Wreaking Havoc Across the U.S.
• World on Fire
• U-S Attacked by Continued Severe Weather

World on Fire

US: Highest No. of Wildfires (y-t-d)

US Wildfires: 50-percent more fires than the 10 year average

Fueled by dry weather (drought conditions) and wind, between January 1, 2011 and March 1, 2011 at least 9,760 fires consumed more than 230,000 acres. [10-year average: 6,205 fires; 153,877 acres]

States currently reporting large fires:

• Florida
• Texas
• Virginia
  
• New Mexico
• Total no of new and active large fires: ~ 45

National Fire Activity:

• Initial attack activity: Moderate (271 new fires)
• New large fires: 7
• Large fires contained: 14
• Uncontained large fires: 12

Active Fire Mapping: USDA Forest Service. Click image to enlarge.

Wildfires have destroyed at least 80 homes in Texas and scorched some 300 square kilometers.

“From Feb. 21 through Feb. 28, the Texas Forest Service responded to 63 fires on nearly 140,000 acres — mostly in the Panhandle and Rolling Plains.” Source

Destroyed by Wildfire:

• Potter County, north of Amarillo: 30,000 acres and 30 homes
• Motley County:  40,000 acres consumed, and the entire town of Matador had to be  evacuated

Fire bans were imposed  in 144 Texas counties as of Feb. 28, the Forest Service reported.

MODIS Rapid Response System Global Fire Maps

Latest fire map available: 02/20/11 – 03/01/11 (2011051-2011060). Each of these fire maps accumulates the locations of the fires detected by MODIS on board the Terra and Aqua satellites over a 10-day period. Each colored dot indicates a location where MODIS detected at least one fire during the compositing period. Color ranges from red where the fire count is low to yellow where number of fires is large. The compositing periods are referenced by their start and end dates (julian day). The duration of each compositing period was set to 10 days. Compositing periods are reset every year to make year-to-year comparisons straightforward. The first compositing period of each year starts on January 1. The last compositing period of each year includes a few days from the next year. SOURCE: MODIS . Click image to enlarge.

Large Wildfires in Florida

Three large wildfires burning out of control in eastern Florida forced the authorities to close major routes, including Highway 1 and Interstate 95 on February 28, 2011 as MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this image. SOURCE: NASA-EO. Click image to enlarge.

MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite detected fires burning in southern Texas and Louisiana on March 1, 2011. Source: NASA-EO. Click image to enlarge.

Related News Links:

• 16,000-acre wildfire: Firefighter’s face burned
• West Texas deals with wildfire devastation

FIRE-EARTH Links:

• U-S Attacked by Continued Severe Weather
• Climate Forcing: Positive Feedback Mega Loop
• Global Climate Extremes INTENSIFYING

• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2011-2012 MegaDisasters
• Earth: Wounded and Feverish

• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• FEWW DISASTER FORECAST 2011
• 2011 Much More Disastrous
• 2011 SIX TIMES MORE DISASTROUS THAN 2010
• Megadisasters Loom
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities