A cold front moved through the area last night and behind this front, much cooler and drier air will move into the area. Yesterday's extremely strong winds will relax just a bit but we will still see wind gusts to 30 mph at times. When you combine that with relative humidity at or below 30% today's fire danger could actually be worse than what we saw yesterday.
Yesterday numerous fires, at one point numbered 25, were set across East Texas. The main cause for most of the fires were sparks probably caused from limbs falling on power lines. This will happen again today as the dry summer has made our East Texas trees very brittle. Unlike severe weather, fires are nearly impossible to predict or track until they grow large enough to be seen by radar or from satellite. Please use extra caution when out and about this Labor Day. If you are grilling use a closed grill system and check with your county to make sure you are allowed to grill. Also, NEVER leave a lit grill unattended. And please remember, throwing a cigarette butt out the window WILL cause the dry down to ignite.
In my 4 years of covering severe weather here in East Texas, only one life has been lost. Yesterday we lost two East Texans because of Fire. Please take this seriously. We will see numerous fires again today. It will be very dangerous at times. Please, if you see a large fire approaching your area, get out. Make plans now to assure you and your family can be safe. Again, we can't predict where these fires will start. We will not know about them until develop. Please be safe!
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