As many as 23 separate wildfires covered more than a million acres across Texas early this morning, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Wildfires, having moved east from the Texas Panhandle, were spreading in Oklahoma. At least 12 fires were burning in the state, covering more than 115,000 acres. "It was caused by high winds on Monday and Tuesday this week. It made those two days extremely receptive to burn," he said. The next day, Arctic air plunged down from the north in a bitter cold front. Winds on both sides of that front — which exceeded 50 mph at times — sent flames roaring through dormant grasses, Nielsen-Gammon said. The cold front arrived in the late afternoon, when wind speeds were highest, and also changed directions as it passed through, maximizing how quickly the fire spread.
The cause of this week’s fires is still unknown but dry, warmer than average conditions combined with high winds caused blazes that sparked to grow exponentially, prompting evacuations across a more than 100 mile stretch of small towns and cattle ranches from Fritch east into Oklahoma. Posting on X late yesterday, he said:"The fires in the Texas Panhandle are raging ferociously. My team in the state is continuously monitoring the ongoing situation closely."
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