Forecasts favor wildfires across South Texas

SAN MANUEL - The winter and spring of 2008 was one of the worst fire seasons ever for the rural ranchlands of South Texas.

And the upcoming winter fire season could be just as bad - or even worse, officials said.

At least 76,000 acres burned in 27 different wildfires on the ranchlands south of Corpus Christi between January and May, statistics with the U.S. Geological Survey show.

The area's largest wildfire, the Burns Ranch blaze in March, consumed more than 26,500 acres - an area nearly the size of McAllen. Triggered by sparks from a downed power line, the fire burned four buildings to the ground and forced an evacuation of northern Hidalgo County.

"This fire season was the worst historical fire season we've seen in South Texas - period," said Marty Martinez, who works with the Texas Forest Service in Kingsville.

Last fire season lasted from the day after Christmas in 2007 until just days before Hurricane Dolly struck in July.

Much of what triggered last year's wildfire outbreak was a drought compounded by a La Niña weather pattern that choked precipitation and warmed temperatures throughout the winter.

But a wetter-than-normal summer and Dolly's direct hit dumped enough rainfall to end the drought. Cities across the Valley recorded rainfall totals this year that are already 6 to 12 inches above yearly averages.

All that moisture gave the burned rural grassland a chance to grow even taller than it did last year.

"Our worst enemy at this point was those rains from Hurricane Dolly," Martinez said.

The long-term forecast calls warm and dry conditions to increase as winter sets in - a possible crescendo to a sequel of last year's flame-licked season.

"Although we're sitting in very good shape right now ... we'll start drying out over the next several months and likely see below-normal rainfall in December, January and February," said Tim Speece, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Brownsville.

Local emergency management leaders said they want to be more prepared to fight the fires this year than they were before.

Tony Peña, who coordinates emergency management response in Hidalgo County, and other local officials met with landowners Wednesday night in San Manuel.

Peña emphasized the success local fire departments had fighting wildfires last season and asked landowners to do their best to help out by preparing their land for the dry season and helping firefighters navigate their property.

"Hopefully it won't (happen), but we're getting ready," Peña said of the next big wildfire.

And while last year was an unprecedented wildfire season in South Texas, it's not the worst the state has ever seen.

About two years ago, in March 2006, the East Amarillo Complex Fire consumed more than 907,245 acres - more than all of Starr County.

Like the Burns Ranch fire that spread across northern Hidalgo County two years later, a fallen power line ignited the blaze.

But unlike any wildfire in South Texas last season, 11 residents and one firefighter were killed in the Amarillo blaze.

"We've been very lucky that there's been no loss of life," Peña said.