Federal forecasters are warning that the fire season could be very active across broad swaths of our region this July and August.
Every month, the National Interagency Fire Center puts out a four-month season outlook that gives a sense of the potential for significant wildfires.
Red on the map means above average, and this coming August nearly all of Montana and Idaho and significant swaths of California and Nevada are painted red. All of Washington and Oregon are also above average.
The rest of the country is either red or white — meaning average, a pretty unusual situation, according to NIFC meteorologist Jim Wallman.
"Overall it's looking quite grim out West for July and August right now," he said.
He pointed to several factors behind the forecast, including expected above average temperatures and dryness for much of the region over the next couple months.
"The snowpack in the West that we had is coming off very quickly and started to come off very quickly in April," he added.
But Wallman also noted that a similar outlook was issued in 2022, and then May and June were ultimately much wetter than expected — and a fairly normal fire season followed. For now, he urged extreme caution this summer.
"If something gets out, anything could go big," he said. "If it turns out to be as bad as we're expecting."
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
