Major fires in Texas panhandle

[Jay McCoy]

There are 2 fires that have been raging out of control all day in the panhandle. 1 started just east of Borger and the other just east of Groom.

6 towns including Skellytown, Lefors, Wheeler, Mobeetie, Old Mobeetie, and Miami are under manditory evacuation orders. I-40 has been shut down from Groom to the state line. There was a multiple car pileup east of Groom due to smoke involving at least 10 vehicles with at least 4 fatalities and 2 more fatilities near Borger. Both fires are still totally out of control with winds of 40+ fueling them.

You can see the smoke plumes on radar and satellite.

 

[Dan Robinson]

What an insane dryline. 81/63 in Ada and 80/11 in Wichita Falls.

 

[B Ozanne]

I was going to mention something about all that smoke showing up on the vis today....too busy watching the action on the moist side of the dryline though.

 

[David Drummond]

Been quite a few down here in the Lubbock area too Jay, although I have as yet been unable to ascertain the extent of it. I know west of Levelland there were a couple of significant fires, and there was a huge fire that has been ongoing since before noon around Lovington, NM.

This has been the worst dust storm we have had since that one in December in 2003 I think it was.

 

[B Ozanne]

Any pics of the dust storm? It looked like a large portion of western OK was being effected by that dust.

 

[David Drummond]

I went out and shot a little bit of one of the smaller fires at a local cotton gin. I wanted to head out to some of the bigger fires, but I had other pressing work that had to get finished.

I did a shot of the spinning anemometer at the end. Winds were sustained around 40 when I shot that gusting higher. Note that the cups are blurred and then appear to go backwards they are spinning so fast!

http://wx5tvs.com/stormtrack/duststorm.wmv

It's about 5 megs. Sorry some of it's blurry. I forgot I had my wide angle lens on and was zooming in! :shock: Listen to the wind!

 

[Bill Hamilton]

Even on TWC there is a Special Weather Statement concerning the smoke and dust from Texas coming into W/SW OK. Must be pretty bad out that way.

 

[Jay McCoy]

Latest news is new manditory evacuations for McClean and voluntary evacuations for north side of Pampa. Fatalities are up to 7 now and over 200, 000 acres near borger and over 500,000 acres near groomhave burned with all fires still totally out of control. Dozens of structures have been destroyed. total acres burned with all fires is close to 1,000,000 so far!!!

westbound traffic is being diverted south from I-40 to Childress then back west on 287. I-40 is still closed from From to shamrock

 

[David Wagener]

Coming back in from Tulsa tonight, chased the storm that blew up around Seminole and booked NE...could just see the haze over the City coming down 44. Here in Norman the smell of smoke just really kicked in and it is VERY strong. Good luck to everyone out there. The vis images Norman has on their website really tell the tale on how massive these are.

 

[Bill Hamilton]

Here in the city of Duncan, OK. the local Office of Emergency Management has broke into television programming advising citizens NOT to call 911 about the smoke unless the actually see a fire.
The 911 call center is flooded with calls about the "fires" in Duncan.
Smoke is quite thick, like fog here. Almost to the point where it makes it hard to breathe.

 

[Jason Boggs]

It was a close call for my parents home in Lefors, TX. Go to my blog to read more on these widfires and see some cool video.

 

[David Drummond]

It has cooled off EXTENSIVELY here in the Lubbock area by about half of this afternoon's high. And even worse, we have some negative numbers in the dewpoints! Does that mean we OWE mother nature some moisture now? :shock: It's still pretty gusty outside too.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Coming back in from Tulsa tonight, chased the storm that blew up around Seminole and booked NE...could just see the haze over the City coming down 44. Here in Norman the smell of smoke just really kicked in and it is VERY strong. Good luck to everyone out there. The vis images Norman has on their website really tell the tale on how massive these are.

I noticed the smoke as I drove out of the west side of Tulsa, heading back to OUN. It was thick all the way back to OKC, and it still REAKS of wildfires outside now.

 

[David Drummond]

Here is more on the massive fire in SE NM:

http://kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?S=4621628

A smaller fire north of Lubbock that showed up on vis sat and radar as well:

http://kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?S=4621720

The big pileup that Jay mentioned:

http://kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?S=4621705

some video at the above links

 

[Jay McCoy]

As of Monday morning..

Some fires in the east panhandle still out of control. More fires expected today ofcourse but winds wont be near as bad at 15-20.

The fire near Borger was 200,000 acres and cost 3 lives. the Groom Fire was 500,000 acres and cost 4 lives. There were numerous other fires including near amarillo, childress, and Lubbock with a total from the texas wildfire dept. at around 1 million acres. The nearly 700,000 acres in the 2 big fires alone is the biggest fire outbreak in texas history and is 2/3 the size of Rgode island. Latest from CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/13/wi...s.ap/index.html

New fires have already started this morning on the NE side of Amarillo..here we go again.