Wildfires

Under Utah law, cities can't charge taxes for the upcoming fiscal year if they weren't incorporated by Jan. 1. Ogden Valley City missed that deadline by just one day.

Utah's capital is one of several Mountain West cities with high ozone pollution, commonly known as smog. Higher temperatures, wildfires, and geography can all make pollution worse.

In other news, Utah gas prices jumped 20 cents in the last week. And, don't panic if you see smoke along Great Salt Lake's eastern shore this weekend — it's probably not a wildfire.

Wildfires and hailstorms are driving up home insurance costs in the Mountain West. Colorado's proposed solution? Give residents grants to protect their homes, which could mean fewer claims.

When wildland firefighters are on prescribed fires, they're breathing the same smoke and facing many of the same hazards found on wildfires — but currently, they don't get the same hazard pay.

In other news, St. George ranked eighth for fastest-growing metros in the country, according to census data. And, restoration is underway for 27,000 acres burned by the Monroe Canyon Fire last year.

Fire creates a mosaic of different habitat types, each at a different stage of succession. We humans continue to have a profound influence on these fire regimes.

Snowpack is often described as the West's largest natural reservoir — and the way forests are managed can affect how much of that snow becomes part of the water supply, according to new research.

A new report found those disasters were also closely connected, with drought and low snowpack creating ideal conditions for large wildfires.

The team at Boise State University looked at hundreds of attributes about the fires — not just weather variables like wind speed or temperature, but human factors like density of development.