Florida Panhandle Wildfire Burns Homes; Hundreds Ordered to Evacuate

https://weather.com/news/news/2020-05-06-wildfire-closes-interstate-10-in-florida-panhandle?fbclid=IwAR1AlV5v_E_4d47b2OqxhVe11kE4Ujv4Sy7zIYGWIuEx3LV_GUXUycuKtYo

By Jan Wesner Childs
May 6, 2020

An aggressive wildfire burned structures, forced hundreds of residents from their homes and closed a portion of Interstate 10 in the Florida Panhandle Wednesday.

The so-called Five Mile Swamp Fire grew rapidly near the interstate, exploding to more than 3 square miles on Wednesday evening. Evacuations went from voluntary to mandatory in the afternoon as some 1,100 homes were threatened by the blaze, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

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ike most of Florida, much of the Panhandle is either "abnormally dry" or in "moderate drought" conditions, according to the latest drought monitor.

"Pensacola, Florida, usually a reliably wet part of the northern Gulf Coast in spring, has only picked up 43% of its average rain since March 1," said weather.com senior meteorologist Jonathan Erdman.

Pensacola has received 4.59 inches of rain since March, a deficit of about 6.2 inches below normal spring rainfall.

The Florida Forest Service has battled nearly 1,100 wildfires since January. Nearly all of those were caused by humans, according to the agriculture department.