Red Flag Warning Issued for Southeast New Mexico and West Texas
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on April 17, 2026, 4 months ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
A Red Flag Warning is in effect for areas including Sacramento Foothills and Chaves County Plains due to critical fire weather conditions with strong winds and low humidity.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Red Flag Warning
- Affected area
- Southeast New Mexico and West Texas
- Issued
- April 17, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Midland/Odessa TX
Fire-weather notices describe conditions that can support rapid fire spread; they do not report that a fire is present. Check local emergency sources for any active incident.
Record status: historical. It was issued 4 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Southeast New Mexico and West Texas.
Alert Details
The Red Flag Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) Midland/Odessa TX. It is effective from April 17, 2026, at 2:01 AM CDT until April 17, 2026, at 9:00 PM CDT.
Affected Areas
The warning covers Sacramento Foothills and Guadalupe Mountains; Chaves County Plains; Eddy Plains; Lea; Gaines; Dawson; Andrews; Guadalupe Mountains Above 7000 Feet; Guadalupe and Delaware Mountains; and Eastern Culberson County in Southeast New Mexico and West Texas.
What You Should Do
Prepare for critical fire weather conditions. A combination of strong winds, low relative humidity, and warm temperatures will increase the potential for fire growth, and any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly. Outdoor burning is not recommended.
Expected Conditions
Winds are expected from the southwest at 25 to 35 mph with gusts up to 55 mph. Relative humidity will drop as low as 9 percent. The RFTI is 6 or critical, with fuels (ERC) in the 50th-69th percentile (3 out of 5), weather critical (3 out of 5), and fire environment at 6 out of 10.
Timeline
The alert is effective starting April 17, 2026, at 2:01 AM CDT, with onset at 12:00 PM CDT. It expires at 2:15 PM CDT and ends at 9:00 PM CDT.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
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Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,232 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to April 17, 2026.
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