HUTCHINSON COUNTY, Texas – The panhandle is still burning Wednesday as the state deals with the second largest wildfire in Texas history.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire has grown to 850,000 acres and is only 3% contained according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Update: the #SmokehouseCreekFire in Hutchinson County is an estimated 850,000 acres and 3% contained. #txfire
— Incident Information - Texas A&M Forest Service (@AllHazardsTFS) February 28, 2024
The state’s largest wildfire was the East Amarillo Complex fire in 2006, which burned 907,245 acres.
KPRC 2′s Daji Aswad spoke with Michael Gittinger, the head meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Amarillo. He says weather conditions have made it hard for firefighters.
“They can’t do that when the wind’s blowing in. The wind is blowing 65. If they get in front of one of these, the forward motion, it will just run. It will run the firefighters over. So, they have to attack these things from the sides almost and almost sometimes behind. They will get behind it. But once the conditions get better, they can be a little more aggressive.” said Gittinger
Gittinger says this type of fire can be classified as a Southern Great Plains Wildfire outbreak. This phenomenon occurs when the environment has dry conditions, dry vegetation, west or southwest winds, low relative humidity, and above average temperatures and a turbulent atmosphere. The Texas A&M Forest service says since 2005 the Southern Great Plains Wildfire Outbreak events account for almost 50% of acres burned but only 3% of reported wildfires.
While we are far removed from the wildfires here in Houston, many are worried about if the wildfire smoke will make it to the Gulf Coast. Right now, models take smoke far away from us but if you have any family or travel to Oklahoma, this is where smoke will continue to blow to due to a southwest wind.