Silver Heels Fire, Near Big Springs, Texas, March 27, 2008 (Photo: Texas Forest Service)
(July 30, 2008) - Since the beginning of the year, more than two million acres have been consumed by 27,000 wildfires in the National Weather Service's Southern Region. While portions of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico have all been affected, the state of Texas has sustained the heaviest losses.
Based on the combined totals of all local fire departments in the state, Texas wildfires burned 1.4 million acres and destroyed more than 600 structures since January 1. Precipitation from the remnants of Hurricane Dolly has helped alleviate some of the wildfire hazards across southern and far west Texas, but the fire danger remains high throughout the northern and northwestern portions of the state.
On July 28, numerous north Texas communities experienced record 24 hour temperatures with readings ranging from 99 degrees in Sulphur Springs and McKinney to 110 degrees in Wichita Falls. In addition to continuing high temperatures, relative humidity values were expected to fall below 30 percent for much of Texas, Oklahoma, and portions of Louisiana.
National Weather Service Southern Region forecast offices have also provided extensive fire weather support to incident commanders battling wildfires - not just in Texas and the south, but in the fire ravaged western states as well. According to the National Weather Service Fire Weather Coordinator, about 54,000 wildfires have burned more than 3.5 million acres in the United States since the first of the year.
During that time, more than 100 Incident Meteorologists (IMETS) have been dispatched to support incident command teams and one-fourth of them were sent from Southern Region forecast offices. In addition to the IMETS dispatched from the United States, Australia and New Zealand have also provided 44 fire specialists and managers to assist with ongoing fire suppression operations in California.