SALEM â Widespread and worsening drought in much of the West prompted wildfire seasonâs high-risk period to arrive at least a month early.
âWe have active large fires in all Western regions,â National Interagency Fire Center meteorologist Nick Nauslar said in a multi-agency news conference July 1.
Prolonged extreme heat continues to bake built-up grasses and other fine fuels that dried early during an unusually warm spring. Some timber also dried early.
Nauslar, who wrote much of the National Significant Wildfire Potential Outlook for July through October, said the last few days of June brought a surge of monsoonal moisture to the Southwest, Colorado and southern Great Basin.