Four large fires burning in the Panhandle right now and more will likely appear in the next day or two.

Juliet Pass Fire
~3,000 acres, 90% contained

Grape Vine Creek Fire
30,000 acres, 20% contained

Windy Deuce Fire
20,000 acres, 20% contained

And the really bad one:
Smokehouse Creek Fire
250,000 acres, 0% contained

Update: the #SmokehouseCreekFire in Hutchinson County is an estimated 250,000 acres and 0% contained. #txfire pic.twitter.com/xKtE8r6S5O

— Incident Information - Texas A&M Forest Service (@AllHazardsTFS) February 27, 2024

🚨#UPDATE: Devastating satellite imagery shows large heat signatures from the fires across the Texas panhandle as they make their way into Oklahoma pic.twitter.com/lxo0dPLzR9

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) February 27, 2024

Dry weather coupled with winds over 40mph and gusts much higher turned the entire panhandle into a tinderbox.

Politics related because like any natural disaster, it will be blamed on Republicans and "climate change." If this ends with numerous towns burned down and loss of life, no doubt the Democrats will use it in the November election, especially against Ted Cruz.

Links below to the Texas Forest Service incident map, Broadcastify feeds, the Amarillo TV stations, and the one current live stream on YouYube.

https://tfswildfires.com/public/

https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/stid/48 (Click on the affected counties on the map to listen to the local feeds, assuming they're still online.)

https://www.newschannel10.com/
https://abc7amarillo.com/
https://www.myhighplains.com/

Prayers for the panhandle farmers and ranchers.

That area had an +entire years worth of rain from mid April to early June last year and grass and other vegetation exploded. its barely rained since. Unless some early spring rains show up this is going to be an on going thing-- bad.

Lots of dried out fuels and west Texas winds ugly combo. But hardly anything new.

Old May Banker said:

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Prayers for the panhandle farmers and ranchers.

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This will be the talking point..:"look fire! Climate change! Much worse than illegal immigration of innocent women and children!"

Raiderjay said:

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This will be the talking point..:"look fire! Climate change! Much worse than illegal immigration of innocent women and children!"

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Unless the fire was started by illegals or a sleeper cell. We have sleeper cells all over the country from every bad guy group you can think of.

Canadian, Texas, is a wonderful town in the NE Panhandle. Was put under an evacuation order, later changed to shelter in place because all exits blocked.

Cold front is blowing in, which means strong west winds blowing across the front, to be followed by winds shifting to the north.

At least the front will bring lower temps and reduced wind 12-24 hours later

Canadian is on fire. Our tenants just called and said it's all on fire. Stinnett is also evacuated.

Pampa and Borger evacuated. Think about all the O&G stuff there.

I hope for safety for those involved and rain to get rid of these fires.

Malibu said:

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I hope for safety for those involved and rain to get rid of these fires.

Several posters when CA forests are on fire have blamed incompetent forestry management. Is the problem here similar?

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Not many forests up there…..

The odd thing is, proper grassland management does leave fuel for such fires. With those conditions, even stuff that may be considered "overgrazed" will likely burn with gusto.

I saw a picture a few minutes ago that was taken from south of Canadian near Aud (the dinosaur). There was nothing but smoke heading north.

Breaking: the town of Canadian Texas is on fire. The area is having sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts of up to 65 mph.

These are the main fires:

Four large fires burning in the Panhandle right now and more will likely appear in the next day or two.

Juliet Pass Fire… pic.twitter.com/xX5HFB3jrW

— Corey Thompson (@Roughneck2real) February 28, 2024

Wow. Just awful.

If we'd only given Bernie and AOC the $32tn they asked for, they would've stopped it before it began.

Absolutely awful.
How can we help?

I would think that all of the spring breakers that will soon be headed to Colorado could drop off clothes, supplies and food items. The fires will be out by then, but the donations could really help.

Photo from The Canadian Record about 4:30 this afternoon.

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Photo on Highway 60 looking north, about 5 miles outside of Canadian.

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South of Canadian


https://maps.app.goo.gl/pEbnZkJXDAorkT4V7

As said earlier, good grassland management will leave sections of lush grassland. We are talking about one to two years of growth and accumulation of fuel.

Totally different situation than California's years of fighting fires and not allowing controlled burns.

You can certainly reduce fuel load around your house and barns, but when you're talking about 100s of thousands of acres, and fires whipped by 60mph winds, no fire break or shredding is going to help.

In addition, the eastern Panhandle, where these fires are, is the Rolling Plains. It's not flat and easy to get around like we are up on top of the Llano Estacado.

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the only good thing is they tend to happen in "relatively" low density areas, so hopefully there is no loss of life.

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The last terrible fires, we did lose a few. I think that Texas Monthly did an article about one of the cases, where a young man went out to try to save the family's cattle, and was overcome. His dad found him shortly before he passed.

When my younger brother's dog disappeared, I did a lot of driving around looking for her. I was astonished at how much tall grass and weeds there are in places that re normally just short grass. It certainly complicated the search for the dog.

I drive by those same fields and pastures pretty often, but hadn't noticed the difference.

Buford T. Justice said:

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I would think that all of the spring breakers that will soon be headed to Colorado could drop off clothes, supplies and food items. The fires will be out by then, but the donations could really help.

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Your heart is in the right place, but I'd bet that good old cash is still the best thing. Immediate needs will have been filled by Spring Break, and no one will need things like bottled water or emergency clothing. They will need $$$$ help rebuilding.

Spring break travel routes are usually up 287 through Wichita Falls, Amarillo, and Dalhart. These fires are all north and east of that route.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Quote:

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the only good thing is they tend to happen in "relatively" low density areas, so hopefully there is no loss of life.

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The last terrible fires, we did lose a few. I think that Texas Monthly did an article about one of the cases, where a young man went out to try to save the family's cattle, and was overcome. His dad found him shortly before he passed.

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The day the fires came.

Lost 4 that day.

Fires are well north of Amarillo, but when the cold front blew through, it brought the smoke with it.

Photo credit: 806 Storm Chasers on Facebook (806 is the Panhandle area code)

https://www.facebook.com/806StormChasers

SunrayAg said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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Quote:

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the only good thing is they tend to happen in "relatively" low density areas, so hopefully there is no loss of life.

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The last terrible fires, we did lose a few. I think that Texas Monthly did an article about one of the cases, where a young man went out to try to save the family's cattle, and was overcome. His dad found him shortly before he passed.

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The day the fires came.

Lost 4 that day.

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Yes. Well written article. Heartbreaking to read.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/day-fire-came/

For fans of Children's book author John Erickson (Hank the Cowdog), he lost his house in those 2017 fires. Got a good "Hank" book out of it.

https://www.amazon.com/Case-Monster-Fire-Hank-Cowdog/dp/1591881714



https://www.newschannel10.com/story/37805205/a-year-later-john-erickson-writes-about-the-perryton-fire-through-the-eyes-of-hank-the-cowdog/

Erickson's house in 2017

It breaks my heart to see my old area go up in flames....again.

I just don't remember so many bad fires while I was growing up there, but I also could have been oblivious as a kid.

I haven't lived in the Panhandle for a long time, but home is home.

Sad deal. I hope we didn't lose lives like in 2017, but today's fires have been just as bad, if not worse. Probably will eclipse 400,000 acres burned. That's 3 times the size of Austin!

My mom just texted to tell me one of my cousins and his family lost their house today at Canadian.

WILDFIRE DATA for CANADIAN. For 1-min, the temps exceed 140 deg F below 2-meters. Wind gusted to 60 mph along the wall of fire/cold front. The 2-meter anemometer is partially melted. The low-level radiation shields are also impacted. The good news is that it's still working! pic.twitter.com/cDtQCNN4cM

— West Texas Mesonet (@WTMesonet) February 28, 2024

It's February. This is crazy.

I can just feel the extreme drought coming our way. Ughh

The seasonal high winds up there this time of year made for some perfect conditions for these fires to spread like crazy.

That looks horrible. There are no words

CDUB98 said:

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The seasonal high winds up there this time of year made for some perfect conditions for these fires to spread like crazy.

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Add microscopic dew points (Dumas has a dp of 19 right now), and it's a powder keg.

We are hauling a load of bottled water up tomorrow from Waco.

Will post an update once we get there