File:Smokehouse Creek Fire Scalds Texas (MODIS 2024-03-02).jpg

English: A large storm system swept across the southern High Plains from February 26-27, 2024, bringing extreme winds and critical fire weather to the tinder-dry grasses of the Texas Panhandle. According to the National Weather Service, near-record warmth and very dry air, combined with winds in excess of 50 miles per hour, produced extremely favorable conditions for wildfires to develop and grow.

On February 27, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of the Smokehouse Creek Fire, the largest of the many wildfires that ignited during the outbreak. On February 29, the West Odessa Volunteer Fire Department announced that the fire had become the largest and most destructive in Texas history, as well as the second-largest wildfire in U.S. history.

In this image, red “hot spots” mark areas where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures typical of actively burning fire. Extremely heavy gray smoke pours from the Smokehouse Creek Fire and nearby fires then blows eastward. The smoke eventually mixes with a line of storm clouds that stretch south of the fire.

This image not only captures the Smokehouse Creek Fire, but also the Windy Deuce Fire which is located near the western edge of large Lake Meredith and west of the Smokehouse Creek Fire. A smaller fire, the 687 Reamer Fire, was also burning between the other larger fires at the time the image was acquired. By March 1, the 687 Reamer Fire had burned into the Smokehouse Creek Fire. The Windy Deuce Fire had consumed 142,000 acres and was 60 percent contained.

According to Inciweb, the Smokehouse Creek Fire ignited on February 26 one mile north of Stinnet, Texas and the cause is under investigation. By the evening of March 1, it had burnt 1,078,086 acres and was 15 percent contained. It is burning primarily on dry tall and short grass, with some timber in bottoms of canyons. Snowfall on February 29 helped slow the fire activity, but dangerous fire weather is expected to return by March 2, with increasing winds and air temperatures.

On February 27, Governor Abbot issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties in Texas due to wildfires and directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to activate additional state emergency response resources to support local firefighters. On March 1, he stated that about 400 to 500 structures had been destroyed by wildfires in the recent outbreak. National news sources report that at least two people have died in the Smokehouse Creek Fire.