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Texas Wildfires: State Battles Blazes From Palo Pinto County to the Gulf Coast Amid Record Heat and Flash Drought
Texas remains at National Preparedness Level 3 of 5 as crews battle at least seven named wildfires spread across the state, from the massive Ross Fire in Palo Pinto County in North Texas down to Kenedy County near the Gulf Coast.
The Texas A&M Forest Service says the fires have been fed by a punishing combination of triple-digit heat, a fast-moving “flash drought,” and gusty winds that have left much of the state critically dry heading into September.
As of the most recent Forest Service and National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reporting, active fires have burned over 100,000 acres statewide, with roughly 540 personnel assigned across incidents.
The Big Picture: Statewide Snapshot
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Active named wildfires | 8 |
| Total acres burning | ~100,000 |
| Personnel assigned statewide | ~540 |
| National Preparedness Level | 3 of 5 |
| Share of Texas in drought | 57% (as of Aug. 27) |
| Counties under burn bans | More than half the state |
The Ross Fire alone accounts for roughly 90% of all acreage currently burning in Texas.
Ross Fire: North Texas’ Second-Largest Wildfire on Record
The Ross Fire, which ignited the afternoon of August 24 near the community of Ross in Palo Pinto County, remains the dominant story of this wildfire season. What started as an estimated 25-acre grass fire exploded within days into one of the largest wildfires ever recorded in North Texas, eventually spreading north into neighboring Jack County.
- Size: 85,303 acres
- Containment: 31%
- Personnel assigned: 462
- Started: August 24, cause still under investigation
The fire now ranks as the second-largest wildfire in North Texas history, trailing only the 2011 Possum Kingdom Complex Fire (roughly 148,000 acres across Stephens, Young, and Palo Pinto counties).
1:30 PM UPDATE: The Ross Fire remains at 85,303 acres
At points during the week, roughly 630 households were evacuated, and the historic Worth Ranch Scouting America camp along the Brazos River suffered heavy structure damage, though no campers or staff were hurt. Evacuation orders in neighboring Jack County were later lifted as conditions improved, but officials continue to warn residents to remain alert given the fire’s proximity to the town of Palo Pinto.
Governor Greg Abbott announced that FEMA approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant to help offset the cost of the fight. Texas Game Wardens have flown roughly 280 water-drop missions, delivering more than 33,000 gallons in support of ground crews, and Texas A&M Forest Service is running the response in unified command with local departments under an active Temporary Flight Restriction over the fire area.
Fires Beyond North Texas
While the Ross Fire has drawn the most attention, Texas A&M Forest Service crews are stretched across the state on several other active incidents:
McKee Draw Fire — Edwards/Sutton County area: Started August 29 near Sonora, this fire has burned an estimated 4,416 acres and is roughly 80% contained. Forest Service resources, including heavy equipment, responded within the first hour.
Rio Escondido Fire — Hamilton County: One of the more advanced incidents, this fire has burned 2,713 acres and is about 95% contained. Officials say 111 structures have been saved so far, and the community of Evant has mobilized to help protect people and livestock in the fire’s path.
Sandy Fire — Kenedy County: Burning in South Texas near the Gulf Coast, the Sandy Fire has consumed roughly 1,500 acres and is about 75% contained, with 32 personnel assigned.
West Fork Fire — Sutton County: This fire has burned about 961 acres and reached 90% containment, putting it in the “nearing control” phase.
San Saba County — two incidents: The county has dealt with two separate fires this week. The smaller of the two, the Pigtail Fire, has burned an estimated 37 acres and is roughly 50% contained.
The second fire in San Saba County is the Keys Crossing Fire burning around 70 acres with 70% containment.
A third blaze, the Cottonwood Creek Fire near Cotton Belt Road, was fully contained after Texas Division of Emergency Management units and aerial firefighting aircraft responded with water drops; no homes were lost and no evacuations were ordered.
Montague County: Earlier this week, a fast-moving grass fire broke out near Starkey Road northwest of St. Jo, prompting a National Weather Service Fire Warning and brief evacuation orders. Crews contained the fire and evacuation orders were lifted within hours, though Montague County remains under an active 90-day burn ban that began August 10.
A brush fire burned for about three hours late Saturday night in Dallas County before being contained.
And yesterday, a morning brush fire burned roughly 75 acres along State Highway 130 near Austin Executive Airport.
Reported just after 11 a.m. in the northbound 14200–14525 block, the blaze drew a multi-agency response, including Pflugerville Fire (Travis County ESD No. 2), Travis County ESD No. 12, the Austin Fire Department, Star Flight, and the Austin Police Department’s Air 1 helicopter.
Why It’s So Bad: Heat, Drought, and Wind
Forest Service officials say the underlying driver behind this wildfire surge isn’t any single fire but weeks of extreme weather statewide. “For the last 30 days, we’ve been seeing hot and dry conditions across the state,” said Laura Steven, a Texas A&M Forest Service public information officer, describing a flash drought combined with persistently low relative humidity.
The numbers back that up:
- 57% of Texas was in officially designated drought as of the U.S. Drought Monitor‘s August 27 update, a sharp jump from the prior week, with extreme to exceptional drought across Northwest Texas, West Texas, and the Panhandle.
- Dallas-Fort Worth is on pace for one of only nine Augusts since 1898 with no measurable rainfall — only a trace has fallen all month.
- Near the Ross Fire, current conditions of about 90°F and 45% relative humidity are forecast to deteriorate sharply, with highs climbing to 104°F, humidity dropping to as low as 19%, and wind gusts reaching 25 mph — a combination that fire officials warn will create a sustained window of extreme fire danger.
- Air quality has also suffered: ozone readings near the Ross Fire reached an Air Quality Index of 136 — unhealthy for sensitive groups — with particulate pollution from smoke adding to the strain on air quality across North Texas.
Approximate Fire-Weather Trend Near the Ross Fire
| Conditions | Current | Forecast (next 3 days) |
|---|---|---|
| High temperature | ~90°F | Up to 104°F |
| Minimum relative humidity | ~45% | As low as 19% |
| Wind gusts | ~15 mph | Up to 25 mph |
State Response
Texas A&M Forest Service — the state’s lead wildfire-response agency — says it is deploying aviation resources, heavy equipment, engine crews, and strike teams across every active incident, with out-of-state crews and equipment brought in under state control to help meet demand. More than half of Texas counties currently have outdoor burn bans in place, and officials are urging residents statewide to avoid any activity that could throw a spark — the agency estimates that roughly 90% of wildfires in Texas are human-caused, from idling vehicles parked over dry grass to unauthorized outdoor burning.
Federal support has also been mobilized: FEMA’s Fire Management Assistance Grant program has kicked in for the Ross Fire, and Texas Game Wardens are running both helicopter water-drop missions and drone-based aerial overwatch to help incident commanders track hot spots and enforce the temporary flight restrictions that keep unauthorized aircraft — including drones — out of firefighting airspace.
With little rain in the forecast and a renewed spike in heat and wind expected over the next several days, Texas A&M Forest Service says the risk of new fire starts — and further growth of existing ones — remains elevated heading into the first days of September.
Sources:
- Texas A&M Forest Service — tfsweb.tamu.edu
- InciWeb Incident Information System (Ross Fire, McKee Draw Fire) — inciweb.wildfire.gov
- National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) — www.nifc.gov
- U.S. Drought Monitor — droughtmonitor.unl.edu
- CBS News Texas, “Ross Fire explodes to at least 85,000 acres in North Texas”
- FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth, “Ross Fire: Palo Pinto County wildfire in Texas still burning”
- The Dallas Morning News, “Ross fire now among largest ever recorded in North Texas” and live wildfire tracking map
- Fort Worth Report, “Ross Fire, North Texas’ second largest, grows to 85K acres”
- The Texas Tribune, “Ross Fire has burned in North Texas for three days”
- Spectrum News, “Texas wildfires continue to burn amid high fire danger”
- FOX 26 Houston / FOX 7 Austin / FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth, “Montague County, Texas, wildfire prompts evacuation orders”
- Bowie News, “Montague County under elevated fire threat”
- FireRisk.ai, “Texas Wildfires Today” daily wildfire report (aggregating NIFC, NWS, and news sources)
- AccuWeather, “Heat, drought continue fueling wildfire risk from Texas to California and Washington”
- Texas Storm Chasers, “Texas Weather Roundup” (drought monitor update, Aug. 27, 2026)
- CBS News Texas, “Triple-digit North Texas heat to stay as August ends”
- KCEN-TV, “Wildfire burning in San Saba County”
- Yahoo News/Nexstar, “Cottonwood Creek Fire 100 percent contained”
This article compiles the latest publicly available fire and weather data as of the morning of August 31, 2026. Wildfire conditions change rapidly — for current evacuation orders and safety information, follow your local county emergency management office, or visit the Texas Division of Emergency Management at tdem.texas.gov.
Austin logged its 37th and 38th homicides of 2026 over the weekend, two killings a day apart that pushed the city’s death toll past three dozen with four months still left in the year.
The first came Saturday evening in northeast Austin, where a suspect shot and killed a victim on Timber Heights Drive, then ran from the scene before being found and arrested at a nearby residence about an hour later; police said the two knew each other.
Yesterday, in southeast Austin, police found a man dead with obvious signs of trauma inside a crashed vehicle and are still searching for a suspect in what was logged as the year’s 38th homicide.
Storefronts around the Georgetown Square reopened Sunday, a day after a police shooting left one man dead and cast a somber mood over the downtown area, as investigators with the Texas Rangers continued piecing together what led officers to open fire.
UPDATE: 2:00 PM: The shooting victim has been identified.
Last night. Mustang Ridge authorities aided the Texas Department of Public Safety troopers with a vehicle pursuit of a black motorcycle within the city limits.
Saturday night, the Manor Police Department participated in “Saturation Saturday,” a regional DWI enforcement initiative in partnership with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).
The initiative resulted in five arrests.
Austin’s local firefighter’s union offered a reminder of the dangers their crew face when battling fires on streets and highways.
Round Rock‘s police department added some new four-legged members to its force thanks to the family that owns the Round Rock Express baseball team.
A plane made an emergency landing Sunday on southbound Wonder World Drive just outside of the La Cima neighborhood in San Marcos.
ICE activity was reported Sunday along Cameron Road.
Reporte Austin also shared the following unconfirmed information:
“Something important to report: the @peopleoverpapers page, which tracks the presence of immigration agents across the country, published that they believe the Austin operation is ending and that this coming week, many of the agents will be moving to the Dallas area. There is no official confirmation, so there is no way to verify that this is true. We will keep an eye on the activity in the coming days.”
Travis County’s $50 million childcare investment is expanding access for families, but low teacher wages and financial challenges persist. (Austin Current)
WEATHER
SUNDAY’S HIGH / LOW TEMPERATURES
AUSTIN-BERGSTROM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
CAMP MABRY
5-DAY FORECAST / AUSTIN, TEXAS
San Antonio crews are pressing ahead with recovery efforts Monday, working to restore electricity to the roughly 1,800 CPS Energy customers still in the dark and clear the debris left behind by Friday night’s severe storms.
7:30 AM UPDATE:
More than 1,800 CPS Energy customers remained without power as of this morning, down significantly from the more than 25,000 outages reported Sunday morning, and from a peak of roughly 112,000 at the height of the storm.
The city and CPS Energy have said crews have been working around the clock to restore power, clear storm debris and hazards, repair infrastructure and support residents, with 216 damaged trees and 124 tons of storm debris picked up as of Saturday. Officials are also investigating two possible storm-related drowning deaths after people were swept away by rapidly moving floodwaters Friday night.
There are fears that two Bexar County residents may have died in flood waters.
Federal courts were supposed to get tougher on judge-shopping back in 2024, when the practice of hand-picking friendly judges by filing in their district became too blatant to ignore.
Two years later, the loophole is still wide open — and the Trump administration is using it. Investigators opened a probe into a Rhode Island hospital and subpoenaed the facility directly, then skipped over the federal court in Rhode Island entirely to file their enforcement petition nearly 1,800 miles away, in front of Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas. It’s a move that has become a favorite of conservative litigants seeking a rubber stamp from a reliably sympathetic bench — and it means patients whose medical privacy is at stake have no say in a courtroom they’ll never see. (New York Times)
One year after Gov. Greg Abbott signed the “One Big Beautiful Map,” Democrats lead in three targeted South Texas races. (Austin American-Statesman)
A poll released Wednesday by Texas Southern University’s Barbara Jordan Research and Survey Center asked 1,300 likely voters in deep-red South Texas congressional districts — the state’s 15th, 28th and 34th — who they plan to vote for in their respective U.S. House contests as well as the races for governor and U.S. Senate. (San Antonio Current)
In the race for U.S. Senate, Attorney General Ken Paxton campaigned over the weekend and also took to the airwaves to paint his opponent, Rep. James Talarico, as a radical liberal.
Talarico, meanwhile, released an attack ad over the weekend, drawing this reaction from Paxton:
A proposal to trim dozens of polling locations in Tarrant County has sparked opposition from local Democrats ahead of the November midterm elections. While critics argue the reduction could confuse voters, county officials maintain that closing low-turnout sites will conserve resources while leaving more than 200 voting centers open. (Associated Press)
A look at the Texas Agriculture Commissioner race with Republican candidate Nate Sheets and Democratic candidate Clayton Tucker.
This summer, Fernando Alfonso, the Texas editor for The New York Times, got in a car with a man named Philip. They drove around the suburban streets of Dallas searching for traffic cameras — not for a red-light camera, or a speed-trap camera, but something new, an automatic license-plate reader made by a company called Flock.
Law enforcement officials say these cameras are essential to fighting crime, but Phillip and people like him, who have located 100,000 flock cameras all over the country, see them as something else: the beginnings of a surveillance state.
Today, Kashmir Hill, a technology and privacy writer at The New York Times, discusses the company behind the cameras and the mounting backlash.
The former TCU player at the center of a sports-media controversy was charged early Sunday morning with aggravated assault stemming from a purported locker room incident earlier in the month. (Houston Chronicle)
The Texas State Board of Education is set to vote this week on proposed updates to the state’s social studies curriculum. Key proposals include examining Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech through the lens of biblical imagery and founding principles from the Declaration of Independence, as well as revising how early Islamic history is taught to focus on military conquests, slavery, and the capture of women. (Texas Tribune)
A 25-year-old man from Central Texas who was deported to Mexico despite insisting he was an American citizen returned to the country Sunday after the federal government reached an agreement with his lawyers in light of new evidence they provided about his citizenship, his attorneys said. (KXAN-TV)
Two months after the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an ICE agent in Houston, the third and final witness to the shooting was released from custody.
McDonald’s is rolling out Texas-themed meals with collectable cups. (KRIS-TV)
SPORTS
MLB: Houston kept pace atop the American League West on Sunday, beating the New York Mets 6-3, while Texas matched them stride for stride with a 7-4 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. The results left the Astros’ division lead over the Rangers unchanged as both clubs head into the season’s final stretch.
Pinch-hitter LaMonte Wade Jr. hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth inning and helped power the Houston Astros’ 6-3 victory over the New York Mets on Sunday night. (Associated Press)
Ezequiel Durán homered, doubled and drove in three runs to help the Texas Rangers avoid a sweep by beating the Milwaukee Brewers 7-4 on Sunday. Joc Pederson added a solo shot as the Rangers snapped their own four-game skid and the Brewers’ four-game winning streak. (Associated Press)
ON THE SCHEDULE
AL WEST STANDINGS
| # | Team | W | L | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Houston Astros | 69 | 68 | – |
| 2 | Texas Rangers | 67 | 70 | 2 |
| 3 | Seattle Mariners | 64 | 73 | 5 |
| 4 | Athletics | 53 | 84 | 16 |
| 5 | Los Angeles Angels | 52 | 85 | 17 |
NFL: The Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans both locked in their initial 53-man rosters ahead of Sunday’s league-wide deadline, and the two teams even swapped a piece in the process: Dallas agreed to send offensive tackle Nate Thomas to Houston for a 2027 seventh-round pick, a trade set up a day earlier when the Cowboys acquired Broderick Jones from Pittsburgh, paving the way for Thomas’ departure.
In Dallas, head coach Brian Schottenheimer noted the roster is deeper and more talented than a year ago, which made Sunday’s cuts especially tough — notable names let go included running back Jayden Blue and edge rusher Sam Williams. The Cowboys also chose to keep three quarterbacks and elected not to carry their top-paid undrafted free agent, tight end Michael Trigg, hoping he clears waivers to return to the practice squad.
In Houston, the Texans will start the year with receiver Tank Dell on injured reserve as they opted to keep five wideouts on the active roster. Among the more notable cuts, Houston released defensive end Dominique Robinson, whom they’d signed to a one-year deal this offseason, while sixth-round rookie receiver Lewis Bond was also let go despite a strong summer.
Both teams still face a full day of waiver-wire activity before final 53-man and practice-squad rosters are truly settled, with all teams required to submit waiver claims by noon Central time Monday.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: The Texas Longhorns gear up for a championship-or-bust season as fall camp reveals a tougher, deeper, and more unified squad.
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