Tag Archives: Oklahoma

Weekend Storms for Tornado Alley — OK & TX

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Supercells will return to Tornado Alley on Saturday

Published on September 16, 2011 12:45 pm PT
– By Kevin Martin – Senior Meteorologist
– Article Editor and Approved – Warren Miller



(TheWeatherSpace.com) — A storm system ejecting out of the Southwestern United States today will set the stage for severe weather across the plains on Saturday. 
As of right now there are several dynamics coming into play that will promote severe thunderstorms with mainly a hail and wind threat. Strong instability along the dryline will promote rapid growth around the Texas and Oklahoma borders, west and southwest side of the state.

These storms will be developing in an area of increasing low level shear by the evening which could support a brief tornado chance. There are dynamics such as boundary layer stabilization that will diminish the tornado probability toward the evening and early night hours so again this window is very small.

from:    http://www.theweatherspace.com/news/TWS-09162011_severeweather.html

More Texas & Oklahoma Wildfires

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Wildfires again rage through Texas and Oklahoma

ReutersBy Marice Richter | Reuters – Wed, Aug 31, 2011
DALLAS (Reuters) – Wildfires raged through Texas and Oklahoma again on Wednesday, threatening homes and buildings and charring thousands of acres of parched, dry land.

The Texas Forest Service has declared this to be the worst fire season in the state’s history. Forest service officials, along with firefighters in communities across the state have responded to 20,155 fires that have burned a record 3.5 million acres since last November 15.

Six of the 10 largest wildfires recorded in Texas occurred in April and 20 of the 40 largest were recorded this year, according to the forest service. Fires this year have destroyed 3,000 structures, including 679 homes.

The danger is not over as new fires continued to break out due to hot, dry weather and extreme drought that persists throughout most of the state.

In North Texas, firefighters were still trying to control a massive fire that erupted in a lakefront community west of Fort Worth on Tuesday.

Central Oklahoma remained under a red flag fire warning on Wednesday, the day after a wildfire destroyed 33 homes in northeast Oklahoma City.

Evacuations at Possum Kingdom Lake, about 75 miles west of Fort Worth, resumed Wednesday afternoon when the wind picked up and fanned the flames that firefighters had some success in containing overnight.

“As soon as the wind picked up, the fires started spreading quickly again,” said John Nichols, a spokesman for the Texas Forest Service.

The fire destroyed at least 39 homes and buildings and burned more than 6,200 acres by Wednesday evening. Property owners in several neighborhoods around the lake were evacuated by boat to a hotel on another area on Tuesday because roads were cutoff by the flames.

But as the fire again quickly spread on Wednesday, those evacuees were again forced to flee, along with others from neighborhoods that were unaffected on Tuesday.

“Fortunately we were able to move our car yesterday before it got too bad,” said resident Laura Kirklen. “We heard a local church was sending a bus for some of those who had no other way out.”

Firefighters were battling the fast-moving fire from the ground and air. Heavy air tankers, single-engine aircraft and helicopters were dumping water on the fires. Possum Kingdom Lake was the sight of the state’s fifth largest recorded wildfire in April, when more than 160 homes were destroyed and over 126,000 acres were burned during two weeks.

for more, go to:   http://news.yahoo.com/wildfires-again-rage-texas-oklahoma-234909723.html