The dry, dusty grasslands of the Texas Panhandle could not have been more perfectly suited to burning. Temperatures were 25 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. The air was dry, with humidity below 20 percent. And wind speeds were as high as 60 mph. Those hot and dry weather conditions worried meteorologists in the region, and their worst fears were realized on February 26 when a spark ignited a massive fire.
Over the past 10 days, five wildfires have burned in the region more than 1.2 million hectares. The largest of them—dubbed the Smokehouse Creek Fire, for a creek near its source—spans an area larger than Rhode Island. It is the largest and most destructive wildfire in the state’s history. Entire communities had to evacuate. Two people died. After more than a week of continuous efforts, crews have only contained 44 percent of the smokehouse fire.
The fire did more than destroy 500 houses, and thousands of cattle, horses and goats either succumbed to the fires or were killed. In light of the devastation, Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of emergency for 60 counties and requested additional resources from the federal government to fight the infernos.
“As Texas experiences the largest wildfire in our state’s history, we remain ready to deploy every available resource,” Abbott said at a press conference earlier this week. “The wildfires are not over, and until they are, it is imperative that Texans in danger areas remain weather-aware to maintain the safety of themselves and their property.”
It remains unclear exactly what caused the spark, something officials with the Texas A&M Forest Service are continuing to investigate. Landowners suspect a downed power line may be to blame – an increasingly common cause of wildfires. In California, six of the state’s 20 largest fires started like this.
Texas firefighters frequently deal with large fires. On average, wildfires scorch about 650,000 hectares each year. In 2011, amid a prolonged and severe drought, Texas experienced one of its worst fire seasons on record, losing nearly 4 million acres. The Panhandle was particularly hard hit. Nationwide, researchers found that wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense, with the season running essentially year-round.
While the severity of wildfires depends on geography and vegetation, weather plays a key role in their frequency and how difficult it is to control. These immense flames require hot and dry conditions, and a warming planet make those conditions more common. The Texas high plains now experience 32 more days of hot, dry and windy weather than in the 1970s, according to an analysis by Climate Central, a nonprofit that tracks climate effects.
“You see more days when temperatures are high, and you see more days when it’s hot, dry and windy all at once,” said Kaitlyn Trudeau, a senior research associate there. “It’s a threat multiplier.”
Climate change also makes wildfire solutions more difficult to implement. Prescribed burns, in which fire officials start a controlled fire to clear overgrown brush and scrub, are a controversial but effective tool to manage the amount of vegetation that can feed a fire. Weather is a key determinant of when to do this. If conditions are too hot, dry and windy, these relatively small fires can get out of control. A warming world makes it harder to obtain the cooler, more humid conditions that prevent runaway fires. That was the case in New Mexico last year when federal officials started a prescribed fire in the Santa Fe National Forest only to lose control. More than 341,000 hectares have burned. Officials underestimated how dry conditions were.
It has also become more difficult to fight wildfires. Typically, cooler nighttime temperatures offered crews a reprieve. But as the planet warms, night temperatures rose faster than daytime temperatures. A 2022 Climate Central analysis found that summer nights were an average of 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in 2022 than in 1970. That means fires can continue to pick up speed after sunset, challenging firefighters throughout the night.
“Climate change not only makes fires worse and more dangerous, but it also reduces our ability to address the problem,” Trudeau said.
