A massive Texas wildfire is now the largest on record in the state (1 million+ acres burned)

[essentialsaltes]

LINK

As snow and rain showers moved across the Texas Panhandle early Thursday, a wildfire grew into the state’s largest on record, with fears it could again spread rapidly when hot and windy weather returns this weekend.

The Smokehouse Creek fire had burned 1,050,000 acres in Texas by early Thursday morning, and had also spread across 25,000 acres into Oklahoma, the Texas A&M Forest Service said. Another fire, the 687 Reamer fire, had also spread into the footprint of the Smokehouse Creek fire.

The fires killed one person, an 83-year-old woman in the town of Stinnett, Tex., the Associated Press reported.

Fueling the Smokehouse Creek were abnormal winter heat that set records across the Lone Star State, plus strong winds as a cold front approached in recent days. Temperatures surged into the 80s and 90s across the state early this week, including a high of 82 in Amarillo on Monday.

 

[wing2000]

100 Degrees....in February:

Fort Cavazos, previously known as Fort Hood, in Killeen reached a high of 100 degrees Monday afternoon as stout southerly winds ushered in anomalously warm weather from Texas to the U.S.-Canada border. Fort Cavazos temperatures broke the previous daily heat record of 89 degrees set in 1954 and marked the earliest date for triple-digit heat at the U.S. Army post.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...100-degrees-monday-february-heat-18690782.php

 

[RileyG]

How sad

 

[durangodawood]

I was a little shocked to hear of a big wildfire in February that's not in Australia.

 

[Whyayeman]

It makes you wonder. Could global heating be real?

 

[loveofourlord]

It makes you wonder. Could global heating be real?

nahhh it can't be, because the north east is frozen

 

[BCP1928]

nahhh it can't be, because the north east is frozen

Clearly it's another Jewish space laser attack.

 

[Nithavela]

Clearly it's another Jewish space laser attack.

Oh no, it's obvious proponents of the global warming lie setting fires to further their devious plot.

 

[ralliann]

It makes you wonder. Could global heating be real?

From Texas tribune...

"The cause of the fires is unknown at this time and still under investigation, according to Karen Stafford, Texas A&M Forest Service Fire Prevention Program Coordinator."

Could be Arson for all we know. Happened a lot in 2017....

 

[essentialsaltes]

Could be Arson for all we know.

While that would be important to know, it doesn't change the situation much. No one spread gasoline over a million acres.

The point is that, in winter time in Texas, the conditions were in place for a fire to spread to a record-setting area.

 

[ralliann]

While that would be important to know, it doesn't change the situation much. No one spread gasoline over a million acres.

They don't need to. Various points of a few people. Or winds

The point is that, in winter time in Texas, the conditions were in place for a fire to spread to a record-setting area.

Yes, the conditions could make for less people involved. I know ( 2017 I think) several people started fires, which the smoke was heavy in our area for several days. I hated it. A continous orange glow from morning to night, you could feel it in your throat.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Now there's something you don't see every day. CNN

 

[Whyayeman]

Could be Arson for all we know.

No evidence for that so far. Lots of evidence for global heating, on the other hand.

Until somebody shows otherwise, I'm going with that.

 

[durangodawood]

No evidence for that so far. Lots of evidence for global heating, on the other hand.

Until somebody shows otherwise, I'm going with that.

Its not either / or. The ignition source is one thing. The intensity at this time of year is another.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has guaranteed Texas and Oklahoma will be reimbursed for their emergency costs, the president said.

“When disasters strike, there’s no red states or blue states where I come from,” Biden said. “Just communities and families looking for help. So we’re standing with everyone affected by these wildfires and we’re going to continue to help you respond and recover.”

I wonder if FEMA is still holding back payments because there is no federal budget yet.

 

[Ceallaigh]

Another thread that's basically about climate change belief and climate change denial. As if enough average people being climate change believers would have prevented it from happening.

 

[durangodawood]

Another thread that's basically about climate change belief and climate change denial. As if enough average people being climate change believers would have prevented it from happening.

There's also the larger question of how we come to believe what we believe.

People who were duped on this topic should look at why they were so willing to assimilate falsehoods, how they got on the wrong side of observation and reason for the sake of political identity.

On second thought, climate change itself may turn out to be the larger issue, given the upheavals it will likely precipitate.

 

[Whyayeman]

Another thread that's basically about climate change belief and climate change denial. As if enough average people being climate change believers would have prevented it from happening.

But it is not about belief. It is about observations over many years and properly drawn inferences.

The climate has heated. The oceans have heated.

 

[loveofourlord]

From Texas tribune...

"The cause of the fires is unknown at this time and still under investigation, according to Karen Stafford, Texas A&M Forest Service Fire Prevention Program Coordinator."

Could be Arson for all we know. Happened a lot in 2017....

here is the thing, it can be arson, and it can also be climate change they arn't mutually exclusive. Climate change creates the droughts extra heat and things that exasperate the wildfires, If texas has been unusualy dry this time of year then it is climate change, since an accident fire in a wet winter is going to be different then a dry summer or even winter. Not saying it is here, don't know the weather just saying they arn't mutually exclusive,.

 

[ralliann]

here is the thing, it can be arson, and it can also be climate change they arn't mutually exclusive. Climate change creates the droughts extra heat and things that exasperate the wildfires, If texas has been unusualy dry this time of year then it is climate change, since an accident fire in a wet winter is going to be different then a dry summer or even winter. Not saying it is here, don't know the weather just saying they arn't mutually exclusive,.

If a fire is started by arson, that is the reason for the fire. Climate change may help make it more devastating, and widespread, even as it might be weather conditions that cause an arson to choose the timing. Just saying climate change is not the cause of a fire.