PANHANDLE WILDFIRES...HERE WE GO AGAIN!

[Jason Boggs]

A wildfire has burned ares of land and destroyed 2 homes and one business in Wheeler, TX. Other fires were ongoing near Clovis, NM and near Tulia, TX.

Winds have been clocked at 63 mph in Potter county. Estimates of near 70 mph have been reported in other areas of the panhandle. Visibility of near zero has been reported along I-40 near Amarillo due to the blowing dust. The blowing dust caused a 10 car pileup along with some 18 wheelers in Amarillo near Hope road.. We are also in a dust storm warning here in the TX panhandle. It's been a while since I have seen that.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

A wildfire has burned ares of land and destroyed 2 homes and one business in Wheeler, TX. Other fires were ongoing near Clovis, NM and near Tulia, TX.

Winds have been clocked at 63 mph in Potter county. Estimates of near 70 mph have been reported in other areas of the panhandle. Visibility of near zero has been reported along I-40 near Amarillo due to the blowing dust. The blowing dust caused a 10 car pileup in Amarillo. We are also in a dust storm warning here in the TX panhandle. It's been a while since I have seen that.

The fires show up well on nearby WSR-88Ds, which isn't surprising given the winds (advection of smoke makes them easy to spot). Their also visible on visible satellite and IR satellite imagery. The smoke from the Wheeler fire is already approaching I35. There's another decent-looking fire near Fairview OK (seen on satellite and, more easily, KVNX)... Very low RH + very strong winds (a la 3/12/06) + very warm temps + lots of dormant vegetation = fire weather day. Wheeler is under 3 warnings right now - red flag warning, high wind warning, and a fire warning.

 

[Jay McCoy]

They are evacuating Wheeler due to the fire being out of control. Steve Miller(tx) is there now and is live streaming

Fire Warning

TXC483-042315-BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FIRE WARNING
WHEELER COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
RELAYED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
312 PM CDT SAT APR 4 2009

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF THEWHEELER COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT.A WILDFIRE IS THREATENING WHEELER TEXAS. PEOPLE ON THE NORTH AND WEST SIDES OF WHEELER ARE INSTRUCTED TO EVACUATE TO ELK CITY OKLAHOMA.


I spent 3 1/2 hrs working the pileup on I-40 west of amarillo. Highest wind gust I recorded was 65mph. Another unit near Buhland recorded 74mph.

 

[Jeff Passner]

The vis pictures are showing sand from White Sands National Park making it almost to Lubbock today.

 

[Lanny Dean]

As Jay has already said, Steve Miller TX was on this fire...I did not get to talk with him but I saw his live stream and the video was CRAZY!!!! Simply amazing stuff!

Maybe he will get on here later and share some of the pics/vid.

 

[Jeff Richardson]

Amazing to see the dust and smoke on the visible satellite loops today. The fire near Wheeler was very obvious.

 

[Chris Nuttall]

I was also told of a fire very near the NWS office in AMA. It was east of the WFO near some of the abandoned building that make up the old terminal complex. Thankfully, the office was upwind of that fire.

 

[Steve Miller TX]

As Jay and Lanny said, I was documenting the Wheeler County fire today after the big pileups on I-40 which shut it down in both directions due to blowing dust creating zero visibilities at times. The local station here, Channel 7, ran my fire video at the top spot at 10pm. I am working on video to upload tomorrow sometime and will post that here. I didn't catch alot of the actual fire itself because of safety concerns with such a fast moving fire, road options, roadblocks, and staying out of the way of emergency crews. But, I did catch a few firenadoes along with everything else associated with a big fire like this. Pretty intense. Thankfully, it appears the town of Wheeler escaped the worst of it.

Here are some pics...the better video I'll load tomorrow.

More pics at the following link:

http://caprockphotography.com/gallery/7808820_3xUh5/1/505541377_S22QS

Now I gotta wash my clothes and air out my vehicle as they reek with grassfire odor.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

That must be what was up here at and before sunset. The smoke was so thick it was making the sun viewable. I knew it was coming up from the South somewhere but wasn't sure where.



The few small fires around here today couldn't have created all that high level smoke.

 

[Steve Miller TX]

I've uploaded my video from the fire. It gets better as it goes on including stampeding cows and firenadoes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFq3DPxtASA