You can smell it in Lubbock tonight, STRONG, strong smell.

News just said it’s already the 5th largest fire in TX history and is 0% contained.

Dang. Lots of prayers needed up there. I’ll be going up this weekend… pray for rain guys.

Merged the two threads into one. Many prayers.

Man this is bad.

You ain’t kidding. Can’t imagine

Prayers for all those affected by these fires.

On FOX news a few minutes ago.

We have what looks like smoke and the smokey smell in the air and we are located 50 miles south of Odessa.

Seems strange to have several fires happening in this region at the same time.

The smoke woke me up at 1:30 here in Sweetwater. It has an unusually acrid smell to it that reminds me of the winter heating pollution from Juarez that drifts over poor El Paso. My grandmother grew up on the Canadian in Hutchinson County.

I was just up there Sunday. Every winter its a race to make it to spring for this exact reason. Fire in the highplains is really life. Most of this country needs it atleast rotationally.

Its no different then NF where fire suppression has really stacked up the fuel. Country will recovery quick, unfortantley fences, cattle and homes not so much.

Most don't realize Feb. is your highest fore danger month.

Prayers to those affected and the personnel fighting them.

Country will recovery quick, unfortantley fences, cattle and homes not so much.

This.

Ben Bob are you in McCamey?

We’ve been smelling it in Angelo since the wind switched

Yes Sir, I am.

Look at the size of that bare spot. Dear Lord. Currently 850,000 acres and 3% contained.

This is bad for humans and hope people stay safe. I have not seen anything about deaths. Hopefully a silver lining will be benefit to the habitat by burning off mesquite and cedars. Even better would be if the fire is a mosaic but the photos I have seen look like a pretty continuous fire.. It would be interesting to know what the extent of the largest fires on the plains prior to Columbus.

I read that it was now 850,000 acres. For those wondering how there are multiple fires at once:

The spokesperson for Texas A&M Forest Service said that battling the fires has been difficult due to super high winds and because the blazes are moving “quicker than anybody can get around.”

“The last two days we’ve been under what we call a southern plains wildfire outbreak,” he said in an interview with KAMR Local 4 News of Amarillo. “It’s a condition that occurs here, and Kansas and New Mexico and the Southern Plains of Oklahoma where we have these super high winds come into the area with low humidities and push and just have massive fire growth.”

He said when you couple that with “grass development out in this area” from recent rain, it provided “a bunch of fuel for the fire to burn.”

To put in perspective. A football field is approx an acre. A section, 640 acres, is one square mile. And this sucker is already 850,000 acres.

Over 1,300 square miles…..