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On February 26, 2024, a cold front moving into Amarillo, TX from the NNE carried with it heavy grass fire smoke, a smell all too familiar to Texas panhandle residents. However, this was not a typical roadside or pasture fire, which are common sights in the area. This plume was different and indicative of something larger, and more sinister. As eye and throat irritation set in, my wife and I took to the news, social media, and the Texas A&M Wildfire map to learn that three large fires were blazing northeast of Amarillo: the Grape Vine Creek, Windy Deuce, and Smokehouse Creek fires. Officials quickly ordered evacuations within the four counties impacted by the burning areas.
Years of lower-than-usual precipitation coupled with the area's arid, seasonally dry period, had left the Texas Panhandle in a drought; therefore, it was no surprise when, fueled by dry, late winter conditions, crispy winter vegetation, and wind gusts of nearly 50 miles per hour, these fires quickly got out of control and devoured Texas farm and ranch land. The Smokehouse Creek fire made history as the largest wildfire ever recorded in Texas by burning approximately 1,058,482 acres. Combined, the three fires burned over 1.26 million acres in the coming weeks before they were 100% contained. While these fires were not initiated by Texas’s most extreme drought—the driest year on record occurred in 2011—the frequency of Texas droughts and the increase in unusually high winds that downed the power lines that sparked these fires should give us all cause for concern.
On March 4, 2024, a week after the fires began and while flames were still raging in parts of the Panhandle, a work trip took me through the Smokehouse Creek Fire area. This drive was the stuff of apocalyptic nightmares. The roads were...
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