Houston braces for flooding and tornadoes as West Texas wildfires burn

AUSTIN (BLOOMBERG) - Destructive West Texas wildfires expanded by almost 20 per cent as violent weather threatened urban centres and residents of Dallas and Austin were warned to seek shelter from tornadoes.

The blazes that erupted late last week west of the Dallas metropolitan area had grown to more than 63,000 acres (25,500ha) by Monday (March 21) afternoon. While the fire threat remains high in the state's western plains, tornado warnings sounded across the state's central corridor.

In the North Texas town of Jacksboro, a twister touched down, raking homes, a high school and an animal shelter.

Statewide, the number of homes and businesses without power more than doubled to almost 70,000.

The collection of threats has been spawned by a clash of weather systems rolling across the Rocky Mountains and Gulf of Mexico.

Houston, Austin and San Antonio are expecting heavy rain, slashing winds and dangerous hail through Tuesday morning, according to the Storm Prediction Centre.

In addition to tornadoes, the Texas Panhandle and parts of Oklahoma are under a blizzard warning and could see 5 inches (13cm) of snow and 65-mile-an-hour (105kmh) winds.

Meanwhile, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (Miso) that operates the power grid stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast asked generators and transmission owners to defer any maintenance ahead of the arrival of severe weather in eastern Texas.

The most severe weather is expected to peak Tuesday afternoon, Miso said in a notice.

In the fire zone, more than 400 head of cattle and other livestock have perished and 110 displaced by fire are being housed in temporary shelters, according to the Texas Animal Health Commission.

At least 433 flights were cancelled at Dallas's two major airports, according to FlightAware, an airline-tracking service.

The storms are being propelled "a classic spring severe weather setup" as powerful storm sweeping over the Rocky Mountains taps into a deep reservoir of moist warm air coming out of the Gulf of Mexico, said Mr Zack Taylor, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Centre.

In addition to the wind and thunderstorm risk, eastern Texas, as well as parts of Louisiana and Arkansas, will face the potential for flash flooding.

"This time of year we have plenty of good ingredients for severe weather," Mr Taylor said.

The threat for severe thunderstorms and heavy rains shift east into Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday.

Critical fire conditions reach across more than 40,517 square miles of central Texas, including San Angelo, as warm, dry winds gust across the region to the west of where the Dallas wildfires rage, the US Storm Prediction Centre said.

Warm winds and crackling dry air can combine to create dangerous situations where fires can rapidly spread, the agency said.

Nearly 375,000 people live in the area affected by Monday's warning.

Red-flag fire warnings stretch from New Mexico to South Padre Island at the southern tip of Texas, and any blazes that erupt could spread wildly from high winds.