Month: July 2022

Hundreds of miles apart, but still connected by the same stubborn weather system, urban St. Louis and rural Appalachia are showing how devastating flash flooding can be when souped-up storms dump massive amounts of rain with no place to go. In St. Louis, the paved city environment couldn’t soak up the intense rainfall. In Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, steep hills and terrain of narrow river channels funneled water into the same place. Although a…

Researchers are learning that cows exposed to fire often give less milk, and horses, with their large lungs, take in a lot of smoke from fires. By Shelly Brisbin & Gabriella YbarraJuly 29, 2022 11:23 amAgriculture & Animals, Energy & Environment, Texas Standard Original

Here’s what’s coming up on Texas Standard for Friday, July 29, 2022. Listen on your Texas public radio station, or ask your smart speaker to play Texas Standard. Check back later today for updated story links and audio. Understanding prisoner exchange talks between U.S., Russia Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said earlier this week that the United States and Russia had discussed a prisoner exchange that would bring Americans Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan back…

After Hurricane Harvey drenched the Texas coast in 2017, rising water wasn’t the only danger to folks in the path of the storm. With the Houston area a hub for industries like petroleum refining and chemical manufacturing, the hurricane also increased the risk of exposure to toxic materials. Now, the results of a unique study are helping researchers better understand the extent to which the storm exposed people to chemicals. Kim Anderson, head of the environmental…

July 27, 2022Updated: July 27, 2022 7:50 p.m. GLEN ROSE, Texas (AP) — A wildfire that has blackened 10 1/2 square miles (27 square kilometers) of North Texas, destroying 16 homes, reached 40% containment Wednesday, double what it had been the day before, officials said. The multi-agency firefighting team fighting the Chalk Mountain Fire 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth said it had completed a fire line around the fire Wednesday. However, the lines…

A grass fire spread to at least nine homes in a rural North Texas subdivision Tuesday, marking the second such damaging grass fire spread in the drought-ravaged region in as many days. The fire in the rural Rendon community, 11 miles (17 kilometers) southeast of Fort Worth, came one day after a grass fire spread into a subdivision in Balch Springs, a Dallas suburb. The Rendon fire was reported about 7 p.m. Tuesday when a…

Though this year’s hurricane season has been relatively calm so far, millions of Texans understand the sudden massive destruction those strong storms can bring. Flooding has long been a devastating result of hurricanes for cities along the Gulf Coast. And in the new book “More City Than Water: A Houston Flood Atlas,” editors Lacy Johnson and Cheryl Beckett tell the story of what it really means when catastrophic flooding affects people in different ways in…

July 25, 2022Updated: July 25, 2022 4:34 p.m. GLEN ROSE, Texas (AP) — Firefighting teams have thrown dozens of extra crew members into the fight over the weekend against a North Texas wildfire that has destroyed 16 homes and damaged five others, officials said Monday. The crews have held the Chalk Mountain Fire effects in check at 10 1/2 square miles (27 1/4 square kilometers) since last week, according to the Southern Area Blue, Type-I Incident…

GLEN ROSE, Texas (AP) — Fire crews worked to extend and strengthen fire lines Friday as diminished winds and higher humidity slowed the advance of North Texas wildfires, officials said. The biggest blaze, the Chalk Mountain Fire, did not spread significantly after it blackened 10 1/2 square miles (27 square kilometers) of land, the Southern Area Blue, Type I Incident Management Team said in a statement. Although it was only 10% contained, crews were making…

Firefighting crews have progressed in their battle against two destructive North Texas wildfires, officials said Thursday. Firefighters have expanded their containment from 15% to 45% Thursday of the 500-acre (200-kilometer) fire that destroyed five homes on Possum Kingdom Lake’s western shore, the Texas A&M Forest Service said. “Crews are definitely getting a handle on this one!” Forest Service spokesman Adam Turner said in an email to The Associated Press. “There is a lot of mopping…

The first lesson you learn when you try to explain an act of God is you almost never capture the full story. As I’ve found in my own environment writings and research, hurricanes, wildfires, tornados, and other climate cataclysms destroy us in vast swaths, and the impact is too varied and incalculable for any one writer to convey on their own. And when the almighty strikes Texas, as in the case of 2017’s Hurricane Harvey…

More than a dozen homes near Glen Rose, Texas, about 50 miles Southwest of Fort Worth were destroyed by the fast-moving Chalk Mountain fire which has scorched 10 square miles of North Texas. And it’s far from the only fire threatening North Texas. Reports say embers of burning tree crowns were flying up to 200 yards away. As of Thursday morning that fire is just 10% contained.  Five homes are reported destroyed along the western…

Texas A&M Forest Service says firefighters are currently battling 15 fires all over the state. No injuries have been reported but several homes have been destroyed. HOUSTON — Extreme heat and drought conditions are making for a very dangerous situation across the state of Texas.  Firefighters are battling 15 active wildfires as of Wednesday afternoon. Two in North Texas have already destroyed several homes.  “Everybody would love some rain right now,” said Erin O’Connor with…

TERRY WALLACE and KEN MILLER, Associated Press July 20, 2022Updated: July 20, 2022 8:03 a.m. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 1of5In this image taken from video, a structure burns during a wildfire in Palo Pinto County, Texas on Monday, July 18, 2022. A wildfire has burned at least five homes and resulted in about 300 homes being evacuated around a lake in north Texas amid sweltering temperatures and dry conditions, authorities…