DALLAS — The Smokehouse Creek Fire, north of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle, has already burned through 850,000 acres, as of Wednesday evening. The blaze was only 3% contained.
It is one of 5 fires in the Texas Panhandle burning more than 1 million acres in that part of the state. The second biggest fire is the Windy Deuce Fire which has burned 142,000 acres and is 30% contained as of Wednesday evening.
Wednesday night, winds will come around out the south and push the smoke plume back north into portions of Oklahoma and into Kansas.
Some light rain and snow is in the forecast for the Panhandle area for Thursday. That precipitation may help with the containment of the fires. Also, issues with air quality are forecasted to improve Thursday. The weather looks dry on Friday along with stronger winds and low humidity which could cause an uptick fire spread.
Here locally in North Texas, we don't expect any impact from these fires. The North Texas Air Quality remains in the "good" category and should remain that way through the end of the week. Any smoke will stay well away from North Texas as winds are not favorable to bring smoke our way.
Latest fire developments from AP:
The largest of the fires — which grew to nearly 800 square miles — jumped into parts of neighboring Oklahoma and remained completely uncontained as dawn broke, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Authorities have not said what ignited the fires, but strong winds, dry grass and unseasonably warm temperatures have fed the blazes. Near Borger, a community of about 13,000 people, emergency officials at one point late Tuesday answered questions from panicked residents during a Facebook livestream and told them to get ready to leave if they had not already.
“It was like a ring of fire around Borger. There was no way out ... all four main roads were closed,” said Adrianna Hill, 28, whose home was within about a mile of the fire. She said a northern wind that blew the fire in the opposite direction “saved our butts.”
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The Associated Press contributed to this report