GOOD NEWS: Doppler Dave gives us some important weather factors after seasonal wildfires in the area
AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The month of March is often the peak of our annual wildfire season and this year has indeed been very active and even tragic at times with the loss of homes in the area due to fires.
For the wildfire threat to be alleviated it usually takes rain and snowfall which makes our recent storm system a very important factor.
This has been a great week of weather for our area. The reason is the storm that brought rain and snow to the area also brought some relief and hope to our parched in wildfire threatened region.
“I think everybody really really felt a sense of joy when they saw that in relief. Seeing seeing the moisture come in. It really helped to bring up everybody spirits,” said Juan Rodriguez, coordinator at Texas A&M Forest Service.
The storm left a nice blanket of snow centered around the Amarillo metro area and along I-40.
While the storm did not cover the entire area with snow, most of the area at least receives some generous rainfall.
The moisture from this storm was more than we had received in the last five consecutive months. Instead of fluffy dry snow like we’ve seen recently, the snow we got out of this last storm is about as heavy and wet as snow gets.
The generous amount of precipitation has resulted in some scenes that have not been present in a long time, like puddles of standing water and formerly dry beds now holding water just to demonstrate how beautiful the moisture content was in this recent snow.
It usually takes about 10 or 15 inches of snow to equal one inch of liquid. In other words about a 10 to 15 to one ratio.
“Right now with the season that we’re in. We’re not in a growing season yet we’re still in that season of dormancy with all the vegetation being freeze cured still currently,” said Juan. “So, we’re not seeing a lot of that moisture being sucked into the actual vegetation. But as far as soil moisture and relative humidity, that in that sense, it really did boost up a lot of that.”
Well, because of this recent storm. We’ve had no wildfires the last few days.
We probably won’t for the next few days, and there’s chances of more moisture in the forecast possibly next week.
Now that’s some good news.
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