By Chaffin Mitchell
USA Drought Monitor with data valid June 18, 2019 (click here).
As the Southwest is drying out, (click here) the threat for wildfires is ramping up and will continue to do so through July; however, if the monsoon season is weak as AccuWeather meteorologists expect, that threat could last into August.
Wildfires have already been sparking across the country in the last week alone, with blazes breaking out in California and Alaska, as well as in parts of Arizona.
U.S. Forest Service and Interior Department officials recently warned senators that the upcoming wildfire season would be worse than last year's, which killed hundreds of people and caused billions of dollars in damages, CNN reported.
The fire season typically doesn't become a big threat until late summer and into fall for the Northwest, but looking at the fire outlook, AccuWeather Meteorologist Paul Pastelok said conditions are favorable in parts of the Southwest for development now....
June 13, 2019
By Ellie Kaufman
US Forest Service and Interior Department officials (click here) warned senators Thursday that the upcoming wildfire season would be worse than last year's, which left dozens of people dead in California, saying that "if we're lucky, this year will simply be a challenging one."
"It's hard to imagine a repeat of this experience, but this is the potential reality that we face again this year," said Jeff Rupert, director of the Office of Wildland Fire for the Interior Department, during his opening remarks at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing. "So it's difficult for me to sit here this morning and say that a challenging year is ahead of us because the wildfires that we're now experiencing are consistently more destructive than they've ever been."...
