Texas, 2018

Wildfire in Texas, April 17 to 19, 2018

April 17 to 19, 2018 · NWS AMA · 1 event in 1 county or zone

The Vanderburg Wildfire began roughly around 2226CST about seven miles south southwest of Lefors Texas in Gray County. There were no reports of homes or other structures threatened, damaged or destroyed by the wildfire and there were also no reports of any injuries or fatalities.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
None recorded
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS AMA wrote it up.

The Vanderburg Wildfire began roughly around 2226CST about seven miles south southwest of Lefors Texas in Gray County. There were no reports of homes or other structures threatened, damaged or destroyed by the wildfire and there were also no reports of any injuries or fatalities. The wildfire consumed four hundred and ninety-eight acres. The Texas A&M Forest Service responded to the wildfire which was contained around 1800CST on April 19.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Amarillo, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 17, 9:10 PM CST, 1 hour 16 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 17, 9:10 PM CST, 1 hour 16 minutes before
Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED
National Weather Service Amarillo TX
1010 PM CDT Tue Apr 17 2018

.UPDATE...
Have updated to include more of the area in the wind advisory.
Cold front is really packing a punch as it moves southward across
the area. Strongest winds look to be across the central and
eastern Oklahoma Panhandle and the northeast Texas Panhandle
through the early morning hours. Believe that winds may decrease
some...especially to the west and south through the early morning
hours, but the far northeast may need the wind advisory to be
extended in time, will watch latest trends to decide.

&&

.PREV DISCUSSION... /Issued 902 PM CDT Tue Apr 17 2018/

UPDATE...
Have gone ahead and re-issued the wind advisory for Beaver county.
Cold front moving southeast out of Kansas has some advisory level
winds with it. Believe it will only affect Beaver county and only
until about 2 am.

PREV DISCUSSION... /Issued 613 PM CDT Tue Apr 17 2018/

AVIATION...
Southwest winds will switch around to the northwest and north
behind a cold front overnight. Winds will tend to decrease some
behind this front at DHT and AMA, but they will stay up at GUY
overnight. Winds will briefly pick up again after sunrise at
DHT and AMA, but will decrease again by afternoon. Skies are
expected to remain VFR.

PREV DISCUSSION... /Issued 345 PM CDT Tue Apr 17 2018/

DISCUSSION...
Focus of this forecast package is on the short term. See Fire
Weather Section Below.

Strong winds are expected to continue into the late evening
hours. The advertised cold front also remains on schedule to move
across the area this evening. Winds may increase quickly as the
initial wind shift move through before winds steadily decrease
through the overnight hours. Cooler temperatures are expected on
Wednesday as winds continue to diminish.

Models have backed off slightly over the past few days on
potential on Thursday. Best chances are contained to the Friday
timeframe. Significant differences remain in the track of the
upper low which will have significant impacts on the duration of
chances into the weekend. The furthest north track has also showed
a continual decrease in forecast instability so our chance for
thunder remain on a gradual decline. Behind this system, fairly
quiet weather is expected for the start of next week.

FIRE WEATHER...
Strongest winds remain across the northwestern Texas and Oklahoma
Panhandles this afternoon. A quick increase in winds can be
expected as the cloud cover thins/moves southeastward. Also seeing
negative dew points across eastern NM moving towards the westward
portions of the Panhandles this afternoon. Kenton, OK has already
dropped to positive 1 while a few locations across the southern
Texas Panhandle have dropped to the single digits. Also, a surface
trough is starting to move into the northwester portion of the
combined Panhandles as winds are taking on a more westerly
component of the wind. This westward trend of the winds is
expected across the area as we move into the late afternoon/early
evening hours.

A cold front is expected to move through the Panhandles late this
evening from NW to SE. The front should start to enter the NW
Oklahoma Panhandle between 7-8 PM, stretch from roughly Vega to
Beaver around 9-10 PM, and be southeast of the Panhandles by
Midnight to 1 AM. This front will be reaching the southeastern
portion of the Texas Panhandle as west-southwest winds ahead of
the front will be decreasing. Once the wind shift out of the north
occurs, expected a quick increase in winds. As the front continues
to march southeastward winds will slowly decrease throughout the
night. The dry post-frontal airmass won't supply much relative
humidity recovery overnight as most of the area will remain below
50%.

Winds continue to drop off throughout the day on Wednesday as the
post-frontal airmass settles in. This will offset the lowest
relative humidity. As such, elevated and critical fire weather
conditions are not expected on Wednesday.

&&

.AMA Watches/Warnings/Advisories...
TX...Red Flag Warning until 2 AM CDT Wednesday for the following
     zones: Armstrong...Carson...Collingsworth...Dallam...Deaf
     Smith...Donley...Gray...Hansford...Hartley...Hemphill...
     Hutchinson...Lipscomb...Moore...Ochiltree...Oldham...
     Potter...Randall...Roberts...Sherman...Wheeler.

     Wind Advisory until 2 AM CDT Wednesday for the following zones:
     Hansford...Hemphill...Lipscomb...Ochiltree...Roberts.

OK...Red Flag Warning until 2 AM CDT Wednesday for the following
     zones: Beaver...Cimarron...Texas.

     Wind Advisory until 2 AM CDT Wednesday for the following zones:
     Beaver...Texas.

&&

15/36
Hazardous weather outlook, Apr 17, 9:03 PM CST, 1 hour 23 minutes before
Hazardous Weather Outlook...UPDATED
National Weather Service Amarillo TX
1003 PM CDT Tue Apr 17 2018

OKZ001>003-TXZ001>020-181515-
Cimarron-Texas-Beaver-Dallam-Sherman-Hansford-Ochiltree-Lipscomb-
Hartley-Moore-Hutchinson-Roberts-Hemphill-Oldham-Potter-Carson-
Gray-Wheeler-Deaf Smith-Randall-Armstrong-Donley-Collingsworth-
1003 PM CDT Tue Apr 17 2018

This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for the Texas and Oklahoma
Panhandles.

.DAY ONE...Tonight.

Widespread extremely critical fire weather conditions will
continue across all of the Panhandles until 2 AM Wednesday
morning. Winds in the 20 to 30 mph range will combine with low
relative humidity values. Winds will be locally stronger across
the central and eastern Oklahoma Panhandle and the northeast Texas
Panhandle through 2 am where a wind advisory is in effect for winds
of 35 mph with gusts to 55 mph.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Wednesday through Monday.

Isolated thunderstorms are possible Friday and Saturday. Severe
storms are not expected at this time.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

Spotter activation is not anticipated at this time.

Area fire managers and emergency officials should be alert for
extremely critical fire weather conditions tonight.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Apr 17, 5:01 PM CST, 5 hours 25 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
601 PM CDT TUE APR 17 2018

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0553 PM     HIGH SUST WINDS  2 W GUYMON              36.69N 101.51W
04/17/2018  M40 MPH          TEXAS              OK   ASOS

&&

EVENT NUMBER AMA1800111

15
Local storm report, Apr 17, 5:48 PM CST, 4 hours 38 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
648 PM CDT TUE APR 17 2018

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0615 PM     HIGH SUST WINDS  3 W DUMAS               35.86N 102.01W
04/17/2018  M41 MPH          MOORE              TX   AWOS

&&

EVENT NUMBER AMA1800112

15
Local storm report, Apr 17, 5:49 PM CST, 4 hours 37 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
649 PM CDT TUE APR 17 2018

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0605 PM     HIGH SUST WINDS  1 WNW FRITCH            35.65N 101.62W
04/17/2018  M43 MPH          MOORE              TX   MESONET

&&

EVENT NUMBER AMA1800113

15
Local storm report, Apr 17, 7:06 PM CST, 3 hours 20 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
806 PM CDT TUE APR 17 2018

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0442 PM     HIGH SUST WINDS  1 NNW STINNETT          35.84N 101.45W
04/17/2018  M44 MPH          HUTCHINSON         TX   MESONET

0450 PM     HIGH SUST WINDS  15 NNW AMARILLO         35.42N 101.93W
04/17/2018  M41 MPH          POTTER             TX   MESONET

0553 PM     HIGH SUST WINDS  2 W GUYMON              36.69N 101.51W
04/17/2018  M40 MPH          TEXAS              OK   ASOS

0605 PM     HIGH SUST WINDS  1 WNW FRITCH            35.65N 101.62W
04/17/2018  M43 MPH          MOORE              TX   MESONET

0615 PM     HIGH SUST WINDS  3 W DUMAS               35.86N 102.01W
04/17/2018  M41 MPH          MOORE              TX   AWOS

&&

EVENT NUMBER AMA1800109 AMA1800110 AMA1800111 AMA1800113 AMA1800112

15

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.

Wildfire, Gray

When
April 17, 10:26 PM CST to April 19, 6:00 PM CST
Where
Gray forecast zone
Reported by
Fire Department/Rescue
Coordinates
35.401, -100.813 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Wildfire
A fire burning in wildland vegetation, with its acreage and damage where known.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Texas in 2018Every state in 2018This day in weather historyWarnings in Texas, April 2018

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 753267.