Imagine a blazing inferno sweeping across the vast landscapes of Texas, leaving destruction in its wake. Homes reduced to ashes, wildfire spreading all over Texas and leaving nothing behind.
The worst wildfire in Texas history is leaving wide scars on the landscape. Why is the blaze so extreme? According to Lucy Sheriff from BBC.

The temperature dropped and snow began to fall on the Texas Panhandle, dusting the scorched grasslands, thousands of dead cattle, and hundreds of burnt-out buildings with a fine layer of white powder. The Smokehouse Creek fire, which started on February 26th in Hutchinson County, has so far burned more than 1.2 million acres (486,000 hectares ), and killed two people and thousands of cattle, on February 27th Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued disaster declaration for 60 counties in response to the wildfire.

Wildfire risk is expected to increase across Texas as climate change brings drier, hotter conditions, According to a 2021 report by the Texas state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, The wildfire season will likely last longer in places where there is little rain, such as eastern Texas and areas commonly affected by wildfires may expand eastward, as fuels become drier faster. There are other factors for wildfires aside from drought four “switches” are required fuel abundance, source of ignition and suitable conditions for fire spread. In Texas, these switches are often flipped in the first place of the year when it comes to extreme fire. Of the 30 largest wildfires in Texas history 90% occurred between January and May.

Why have the fires in Texas been so bad?
According to BBC Texas generally receives more rainfall in the summer, the warmest part of the year, and it is dry but cold in winter and spring “ in other words, key factors for fires do not line up perfectly: it’s cold when it’s dry but wet when it’s warm, “ say Flavio Lehner, assistant professor of Earth and Atmospheric Science at Cornell University in New York says. Except, for this year.

Also according to the Texas Tribune, firefighters in the Texas Panhandle on Wednesday are still trying to keep the largest wildfire in the state history from spreading beyond the nearly 1.1 million acres it has already incinerated as weather officials warned of dry, windy conditions in the afternoon. The Smokehouse Creek fire in Hutchinson Country was 44% contained, meaning that percentage of the area touched by the fire has been secured from further spread as of Wednesday morning, according to the Texas Forest Service. Farmers and ranchers in the Panhandle lost livestock, buildings and infrastructure in the wildfires still raging through the region. Now they’re looking to rebuild.