(this will be in two parts)
Part one: Some good resources for anyone in a wildfire prone area, which seems to be expanding day by day (Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, etc).
Part two: Concerning another major fire underway in Texas.
Part one: A link to some very useful wildfire resources from the University of Maryland called FIRMS, and the NOAA MODIS land analysis system.
The FIRMS one has useful mapping features (works in my IE8 but not my Opera browsers-probably an option setting, haven't checked Firefox) and an almost real-time email notification system which might be restricted to people in 'response' type organizations.
Part two: A major fire started about two hours hour ago on the northside of the San Antonio area, around Stone Oak Parkway, Evans Rd. and Canyon Golf Rd. This is north of 1604, west of Hwy 281.
This fire has 50+ fire units responding to it right now. Two large apartment complexes have been evacuated, and it is spreading, roads have been closed. The area is a very upscale place (Rev. Hagees Cornerstone Church near), and the terrain is the basic now incendiary Hill Country brush and mesquite land.
If it gets out of control it will become a major disaster, on par with some of those in California.
HT to loblolly and ElsieElsie for two very good diaries with lots of good refs and links:
Some of the worst fires in Central Texas History+
and
Has anyone noticed that TEXAS IS ON FIRE?!!?+
(Dang, even with a fairly highspeed connection now, I'm still slow)