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While Tropical Storm Lee has been getting national recognition as the copious, slow-moving rain and severe weather maker that he has been, where ongoing drought is seemingly in the process of creating a new world desert (Chihuahuan del Texas, if you will), the weather has been much different.



Over the weekend, Lee very slowly made landfall along the coast of Louisiana, and continued traveling through that state also at a snail's pace. Meanwhile, Lee's circulation helped to draw down an unseasonable cold front, plunging through the center of the country, including the state of Texas - and ultimately dropping well into the southern Gulf of Mexico. The wind funnel created between these two systems (the front to the northwest and Lee to the east-southeast) resulted in 20-40mph sustained winds, gusting up to 30-50, with relative humidity values dropping like a rock from already very low levels.

Prior to this event, much of Texas also endured its hottest summer of record. The following excerpt from the NWS-Austin:

Quote:

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PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX
254 PM CDT THU SEP 1 2011

...RECORD BREAKING HEAT FROM JUNE TO AUGUST OF 2011...

AUGUST 2011 WAS THE WARMEST ALL TIME MONTH AND AUGUST AT AUSTIN MABRY
SINCE 1854...AND AT SAN ANTONIO SINCE 1885. THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE
AT AUSTIN MABRY WAS 91.6 DEGREES BREAKING THE PREVIOUS RECORD WARMEST
ALL TIME MONTH OF 89.7 DEGREES IN JULY OF 2011. THE AVERAGE
TEMPERATURE AT SAN ANTONIO WAS 90.0 DEGREES...BREAKING THE PREVIOUS
RECORD WARMEST ALL TIME MONTH OF 88.7 DEGREES IN JULY OF 2009. AT
DEL RIO AUGUST 2011 WAS THE WARMEST AUGUST...WITH THE AVERAGE
TEMPERATURE AT 90.1...BREAKING THE PREVIOUS RECORD WARMEST AUGUST OF
89.3 DEGREES IN AUGUST OF 1952. AT AUSTIN BERGSTROM...AUGUST 2011 WAS
THE 2ND WARMEST AUGUST...WITH THE AVERAGE MONTHLY TEMPERATURE AT 88.3
DEGREES.

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No surprise then, Texas has been experiencing just about the worst drought imaginable



Needless to say, this created a trifecta of disaster waiting to happen.

Wildfires have sprung up without hesitation. Most fires are believed to have been caused by carelessness, but there is at least one that is now suspected to have been deliberately set by teenagers. Luckily, many smaller fires were quickly contained, but several got way out of hand in just the blink of an eye.

What is now being called the most destructive fire in Texas state history is still underway just east of Austin in the lovable county of Bastrop. As of 6PM today, Sept. 7, the Bastrop Fire has claimed two lives and more than 470 homes, in an expanse stretching over 24 miles long and up to 20 miles wide.

From Bastrop, Tx. facing east

Source: KXAN. Bastrop: Smoke fills the city's horizon
Credit: Kerri West

Here's a close-up view of the Bastrop Fire approaching:

Source: KXAN. Views from the fire in Bastrop County on Monday. More than 300 homes were destroyed.
Credit: Babs Haller and Wendy Moore

Here is a view of the Austin skyline:

Source: KXAN. This was taken by Austin photographer Deanna Roy from the Austin skyline.

While the worst, the Bastrop County Complex Fire is but one of around 200 that broke out over the past week, combined claiming at least 4 lives and over 1,000 homes, so far.

Winds have been picking back up today, and now the latest is that a new fire has sparked up in southwest Bastrop county, and that all Bastrop fires are nowhere near contained.

Tahitian Village in Bastrop County, about 7,000 lots (Community Website) , and where I was fortunate enough to spend a summer a few years ago, is now being completely evacuated. A gorgeous, thickly-wooded (many deep, tall pines) getaway in central Texas.

All schools in Bastrop & Smithville are continuing with cancellations.

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