It's been about 110 every day lately here, and the winds have been brutal, so stepping out of the front door feels like stepping into a hair dryer.
Driving home from Dallas yesterday I had to take a long detour around a 10,000 acre blaze that wasn't burning when I went through the day before.
(sorry about the yellow piece of furniture reflecting in the car window)
Normally, grasses in this part of the country would still be moderately green at this point and not such a burn hazard, but this year, we had our first 110 degree day in early May. Very little rain to speak of, and the earth is sere and parched, and add the winds and a stray spark and this whole place has the makings of a tinderbox.
Driving my detour through the rugged, rolling country side, I passed scores of little farmsteads, steers munching numbly on the hay with the wildfires in the distance.
Even in Fort Worth Sunday, I saw big charred patches along roadways in the city.
This bodes ill for the summer...
4 comments:
How disturbing. Fire is terrifying.
We've had the exact opposite weather - cold and so very wet. Can we not split the difference somehow?
Our first big fire came in late February up here on the High Plains, and we're still putting out flames on a regular basis. Texas is just scary-dry this year, like it was in the 1950s. And there are a lot more people in harm's way now compared to then. Come on rain or a small hurricane!
LittleRed1
And the cattle and horse folks are going to have to sell/destroy a LOT of animals if they don't get some water on the ground and in the tanks/ponds...
*wishing for rain*
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