Wildfire in Potter, Texas

The Stinky Fire was ignited from the Amarillo Landfill the afternoon of the 17th. Extreme Fire conditions were observed on the 17th. The fire was believed to be controlled that evening, and while it started off as just about 5 acres given it's location and the weather conditions Fire Warnings were issued on the 17th for the northwest portions of Amarillo. Either a new fire, ignited or the fire lost containment under the extreme fire conditions the afternoon of May 18th. The fire would go on to burn over 2500 acres, before being contained. Some homes were unfortunately lost in the process of the fire spreading. Bishop Estates was evacuated as the fire threatened the neighborhood.

A prolonged hot and dry period was set up for the Panhandles in mid May. And with the lack of significant rainfall to help transition the grasses from cured to green, the fuels were well above the 90th percentile in dryness. While it's not uncommon for a high based storm or two to occur west of the dryline and create dry thunderstorms, on May 14th it was certainly more scattered to nearly widespread storms that occurred. Several lightning ignitions occurred, and given that the storms had severe dry microbursts associated, the fires that ignited would spread quickly. Thereafter the Panhandles would go through several consecutive days of critical to extremely critical conditions. And the issues of any new starts, as well as active fires that ignited on May 14th would take another run were of high concern. Overall 20 wildfires ranging from over 34,000 acres to some as small as a few acres would ignite in the TX/OK Panhandle between the 14th and the 18th.