Over 511 000 people are inside the Extremely Critical area, including Amarillo, Texas, and Clovis, New Mexico on May 17. A broader Critical fire weather area covers 292 630 km² (112 985 mi²), with 2 305 781 people inside the risk area, including Albuquerque, Lubbock, Las Cruces, Roswell, and South Valley.
SPC forecast widespread sustained westerly surface winds of 40–50 km/h (25–30 mph) with relative humidity of 5–15% from the Desert Southwest into the southern High Plains. The agency said a pronounced mid-level impulse embedded in a broader upper trough over the Intermountain West will cross the Rockies on Sunday while a surface low deepens over the Plains.
Extremely Critical conditions are forecast where the wind and humidity overlap will coincide with critically dry fuel beds and several wildfire holdovers from recent ignitions.
Widespread sustained winds above the traditional Extremely Critical threshold of 50 km/h (30 mph) were “somewhat in question,” but grass fuel loading above the 95th percentile and holdover fires from the previous several days are compensating factors…