Highlights
Since April 6, more than a million acres have burned throughout the state of the Texas, says the Texas Forest Service. Wind whips both smoke and dust southeast across the state. The image illustrates one of the primary reasons fire danger is extremely high in Texas: strong winds. Warm temperatures, dry vegetation for fuel, and low humidity are also contributing to creating hazardous fire conditions. Normally a rainy month, March 2011 was the driest March on record, said the Texas Forest Service. Plentiful rains in 2010 spurred grass and shrubs to grow. The recent lack of rain, warm temperatures and low humidity has turned all of that vegetation into dry tinder, creating unprecedented fire danger.
As of April 18, 23 large wildfires were burning in Texas. So far in 2011, the Texas has responded to 7,807 fires, which burned 1,528,714 acres of land and 244 structures, said Governor Rick Perry in an April 16 request to President Obama that the state be declared a major disaster.
The source article Wildfires in Texas was published April 18, 2011 by NASA Earth Observatory .
