Last week, nearly 100 firefighters from across Texas loaded up and headed west to join thousands of colleagues in an extended battle against massive wildfires burning across Northern California, one of which has become the largest in that state’s history.
While the fires raging in California have garnered national attention and help from fire departments across the country, Texas faces its own particularly severe year for wildfires. Texas is on pace to see the highest number of wildfires in the state in seven years, according to Texas A&M Forest Service data.
As of Aug. 9, the Forest Service tallied 893 wildfires in Texas in 2018. That’s higher than the number of wildfires in each year from 2012 through 2017 — save 2013, which had 899 fires. But as the effects of climate change have become more apparent in the past few decades, drought conditions persist throughout the state, more fires are likely, and more people are finding themselves in danger of losing their homes and even their lives, experts warn.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, about 78.5 percent of Texas was in drought conditions as of Aug. 7, with nearly 20 percent of the state in extreme or exceptional drought. An estimated 14.3 million people were living in drought areas. Below-normal rainfall in late May through July across the Hill Country and Central Texas has produced widespread, critical dryness in vegetation that can provide fuel to wildland fires, the Forest Service said.
Brad Smith, a fire behavior analyst for the Forest Service, said the state has been running above normal for both the number of fires that have occurred and the number of acres that have burned. “Here in Texas, 2018 is the biggest fire year since 2011,” he said. “(From) 2012 through 2017, we were normal with fire occurrence and fire size. But my experience has been that each year is a little different. It’s not a steady thing.”
Read more on this from the Austin American-Statesman at https://www.mystatesman.com/news/local/texas-pace-for-worst-wildfire-year-since-2011/dpmfasLJ7vV7shGaCUNBtL/.