Texas and New Mexico on Tuesday reported an increase of 28 cases of measles in the last five days, bringing the total known infections to 256 in the two states since an outbreak began in late January.

Texas' largest measles outbreak in three decades grew to 223 cases on Tuesday. Twenty-nine people have been hospitalized and one child has died.

Nearly 230 measles cases have been identified in outbreaks in West Texas and a nearby New Mexico county. One hundred ninety-eight measles cases have been reported in the West Texas outbreak, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in an update Friday — 39 more confirmed cases since an update on Tuesday.

The winds are expected to be strongest and the fire risk highest in an area extending from north Texas across central Oklahoma into southeast Kansas and including a smidgen of Missouri. Wind speeds could top 90 miles per hour in the most extreme cases.

Climate researchers said the ingredients are in place for a wildfire threat North Texas hasn't seen in at least 10 years. One Fort Worth neighborhood remembers the threat of fire well. It had to be evacuated during the 2023 fire.

An elevated fire threat remains in place for Thursday, with that breeze and with very low relative humidity. That elevated fire threat turns critical on Friday as a low-pressure system moves through the Central Plains,