17 new wildfires break out at month’s end

Texas firefighters battled 17 new wildfires that burned about 817 acres on July 30 alone, and carried on suppression efforts on several existing wildfires, Texas A&M Forest Service said. Scattered showers and thunderstorms across the panhandle and sea breeze activity over the weekend made a short-term improvement in vegetation dryness in those areas. The potential for larger wildfires remained in the eastern and western Hill Country, Cross Timbers region, and eastern Rolling Plains, the forest service said. Live fuel samples in those regions are at critical levels, meaning that elevated fire weather conditions could make “tree torching” or the transition of fire from the ground to the canopy of trees likely, the forest service said. Persistent temperatures above 100 degrees in the first week of August will continue to draw moisture from live vegetation, the forest service said. The upper-level ridge of high pressure that is responsible for the hot and dry conditions impacting much of Texas over the past several weeks is forecast to move back over early in August. There are currently 224 counties with burn bans.