Texas Panhandle hit by grapefruit-size hail, Utah wildfires force evacuations

The National Weather Service office in Amarillo warned the Texas Panhandle and parts of Oklahoma that severe thunderstorms could bring large hail and damaging wind gusts above 75 mph, while Utah crews fought the Iron Fire and cleared Eureka, a town of about 1,000 people.

The storm threat landed in a region that has seen this kind of damage before. Amarillo’s major-events archive documents severe weather and flooding across the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, including flooding from June 18-19 between Texhoma and Guymon and historic May and June flooding tied to multiple days of heavy rain. That history matters when forecasters are tracking hail, flash flooding and wind damage at the same time, because even a single fast-moving line can strain local warning systems and emergency crews across a wide area.

In Utah, the Iron Fire was first detected Saturday, June 20, in Juab County and had forced the evacuation of Eureka by Sunday. By Sunday afternoon, it had burned about 21,935 acres across Juab and Tooele counties, roughly 34 square miles, as firefighters worked to keep it from pushing farther into communities and infrastructure.

Local reporting said no primary structures were lost overnight, a sign that firefighting efforts were buying time even as the fire remained active. Utah officials said the blaze was human-caused and under investigation, and the Utah Department of Forestry, Fire and State Lands reported that a major firing operation was underway on the east side of the fire to help crews contain its spread.

The Utah emergency unfolded against a harsh early-summer backdrop. State officials declared a drought emergency in May, and the combination of drought, heat and wind has left large stretches of the state primed for rapid fire growth. Across the West and the Plains, the week’s weather put hail, flooding and wildfire in motion at the same time, forcing forecasters and first responders to split attention between storms in the Panhandles and evacuations in Utah.