The risk of wildfires will shoot up across the Rio Grande Valley on Monday, with coastal Cameron County rising to “very high” on the fire scale.
The next day, conditions up and down all of the Valley will escalate to “very high.”
Weather conditions continue to play a key role in the Texas wildfire situation. In the Valley this week, temperatures will range from the mid-90s to as high as 107, accompanied by strong breezes from the southeast.
While some rain, in places heavy, occurred last week in the Harlingen area and up through Combes, most of the region has moved from the “abnormally dry” classification to “moderate drought” conditions. Only the coastal strip of Cameron and Willacy counties remains in the abnormally dry category.
More than half the state is in the two most serious categories, “exceptional drought” and “extreme drought.” In fact, the only counties in Texas not listed as being in some form of drought are El Paso and western Hudspeth counties in Far West Texas.
The Texas A&M Forest Service reported Saturday that firefighters responded to 17 new wildfires that burned approximately 817.5 acres. Suppression efforts continued on several carry-over wildfires as well.
As of Saturday, 14 fires were listed as active, although none was in the Rio Grande Valley.
Currently, 224 of the state’s 245 counties have burn bans in place. Cameron, Willacy and Hidalgo are not among them.
