Fire Update

We are able to download the latest fire signatures (over the last six hours) as seen from satellite. The acronym for this data is called the MODIS, thermal sensors on the five orbiting NOAA polar orbiting satellites collect the data and send it down to the forestry service. Above is a map from this morning showing the massive PK fire seems to be expanding (the red dots) in two places, just south of the lake around State Rd 16 and northeast around State Rd 337 near the Jack Co line.

 These areas are under a Red Flag warning. Dew points a little highers today, in the low 50's and wind gusts so far this afternoon around 30mph. The winds will pick up as the day wears on.  

Fire watches are in effect for tomorrow- we are expecting the dry line to move into these counties and get across the I-35W corridor. We can expect extreme fire weather conditions in our western third Tuesday;  very low dew points, highs winds and temperatures in the upper 90's.  Storms are in the forecast for Tuesday but only in our northeast and eastern counties on the other side of DFW from these fires.

Late Tuesday a cold front moves across the PK fire. Though it is highly unlikely to produce rain it will produce a wind shift (currently from the south/southwest) to a northwest wind. This will push the fire into new tinder-dry areas.

What we need of course is some wet weather for our drought infested Texas. The Climate Prediction Center keeps us very dry for the next two weeks. That said, it does appear a decent chance for rain for at least some of our area shows up this weekend (click map for a link to a bigger version of the map on the CPC site).