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Lightning-ignited wildfires in the Texas Panhandle

By Scott Bachmeier •

1-minute GOES-19 Visible images with an overlay of GLM Flash Points and the Fire Mask derived product, from 2048 UTC on 09 April to 0007 UTC on 10 April [click to play MP4 animation]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Visible images that included overlays of GLM Flash Points and the Fire Mask derived product (above) showed a cluster of thunderstorms that was moving eastward across the Texas Panhandle late in the day on 09 April 2026. Frequent lightning activity associated with this convection ignited 2 wildfires in Oldham County, northwest of Amarillo (KAMA) — and each of these fires produced small smoke plumes that drifted northward from their respective thermal signatures.

Categories: Fire detection, GLM, GOES-19, Lightning