Texas is no stranger to winter wildfires, but the ferocity of the Smokehouse Creek fire — the state’s largest ever after burning more than 1 million acres — caught even experts off guard. Its severity was due to a perfect storm of environmental factors: highly flammable grasses and high winds, combined with record high temperatures … Read more
Abnormally warm temperatures, dry grass and a sudden windy cold front combined to create conditions for the devastating wildfires that have raged in parts of Texas this week. The winds that swept wildfires across the Texas Panhandle struck at the perfect time of day for destruction, “like a hurricane making landfall at high tide,” Texas … Read more
Forecasting fires is not easy: there are so many different types of challenges that forecasters face, both before a wildfire starts and even while it is active. These fires can start anytime and anywhere. So many different factors need to be considered before we can estimate how quickly this could spread and how deeply it … Read more
The year 2023 was marked by extraordinary heat, forest fires and weather disasters. In the US, an unprecedented heat wave gripped much of Texas and the Southwest, with highs well above 37.8 degrees Celsius throughout July. Historic rains in April flooded Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with 2 feet of rain in 24 hours. A wave of … Read more
Wildfires in parts of the US West could transform a benign form of chromium into its cancer-causing counterpart – potentially endangering first responders and surrounding communities, a new study shows. The research, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, identified high levels of the dangerous metal hexavalent chromium, or chromium-6, at specific types of combustion … Read more