Texas Braces For Unprecedented Fire Danger Thanks To Bomb Cyclone
Quick Capsule
A massive bomb cyclone will form Friday in the central U.S.
Severe storms and hurricane force wind gusts could occur
Much of Texas will be in critical danger of wildfires
Beware the Bomb Cyclone
For the past two weeks, meteorologists and storm chasers have been taking to social media to warn of the possibility of a massive bomb cyclone forming over the central United States on Friday, March 14.
It now appears that this event is imminent. This bomb cyclone will produce several weather-related problems through the weekend across much of the central and eastern regions of the U.S.
The picture above is from a 2010 bomb cyclone in which the central pressure dipped to a record-setting (developing over land) 955 millibars.
What is a Bomb Cyclone?
It's basically a winter hurricane. A bomb cyclone is not tropical, but like a tropical cyclone, it features a very low central pressure. Most weather models are forecasting this system to have a central pressure somewhere between 975 and 980 millibars. That's a reading comparable to a Category 2 hurricane.
A system displacing that kind of energy, in this case, is going to cause multiple issues, including severe storms, flooding, significant tornadoes, and extremely critical fire dangers.
The Good News for Texas
It looks like the entire state of Texas can be marked safe from any of the severe weather that the bomb cyclone will produce.
Friday, severe weather with strong to significant tornadoes appears to be a certainty from parts of Mississippi and Alabama northward to much of Illinois and Iowa.
Saturday, the same holds true for much of the Deep South.
The Extremely Bad News for Texas
The fire danger in Texas on Friday could be historic. Not only are statewide fire crews staging across parts of north-central and west Texas, but firefighting teams from Utah, Wyoming, and other states are traveling to Texas for this possible outbreak.
The result of the bomb cyclone across much of the Lone Star State will be winds gusting to near hurricane strength and low relative humidity. This has led the Storm Prediction Center to place a large portion of Texas in critical to extremely critical fire weather danger.
Anyone living in the area from Dallas to Austin to Del Rio and then westward to New Mexico is included in the critical fire danger region. Persons in Odessa to Wichita Falls are in the area designated as extremely critical.
That bright pink region could have winds gusting to over 50 mph, with some readings getting close to hurricane strength (75 mph).
A Little Good News
A little silver lining is that the Concho Valley and Edwards Plateau have received some recent rains. According to the drought map from the state of Texas, abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions are in place there.
However, with sustained winds of 30+ mph and higher gusts, a small spark could quickly lead to a massive and devastating wildfire.
The Texas A&M Forest Incident Viewer is a great real-time resource for wildfires in Texas. Access it here.
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Gallery Credit: Billy Jenkins
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