Wildfires ravage Texas amidst climate change crisis

Abnormally warm temperatures, dry grasses, and a sudden windy cold front combined to create the conditions for the destructive wildfires that have raged across parts of Texas this week.

Abnormally warm temperatures, dry grasses and a sudden windy cold front combined to create the conditions for the destructive wildfires that have raged across parts of Texas this week.

The winds that sent wildfires charging across the Texas Panhandle struck at the perfect time of day for destruction, “like a hurricane making landfall at high tide,” Texas State Climatologist John Nielson-Gammon said. Hot, dry temperatures — the kind that can be spurred by climate change — helped create conditions for those fires to take off, he added. 

On Monday, temperatures in some parts of the dry northern region of the state reached the mid-80s, and several wildfires began to burn. 

The next day, Arctic air plunged down from the north in a bitter cold front. Winds on both sides of that front — which exceeded 50 mph at times — sent flames roaring through dormant grasses, Nielsen-Gammon said. The cold front arrived in the late afternoon, when wind speeds were highest, and also changed directions as it passed through, maximizing how quickly the fire spread.

It’s not clear how the fires started.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/wildfires-texas-climate-change-crisis-rcna140947

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