Bigger, faster, earlier fires expected

One silver lining comes from the feeble clouds that still haven’t dropped any serious rain over New Mexico this year, according to a national forest fire outlook released Wednesday. The lack of moisture hasn’t propagated any “fine fuels” — grasses and plants that propel fires between trees and other flammable objects — since at least the 2012 fire season, according to the May wildland fire potential outlook created by the National Interagency Fire Center. Apart from the lack of fine fuel growth, the researchers said, the fuel that already exists is dead or dying due to lack of moisture. That means faster, bigger, earlier fires this season in the West. Other conditions in New Mexico are coalescing into a season of above-normal fire potential, at least through June. The monsoons are, at least in theory, going to bring some relief in July, but predicting the monsoon this year is proving difficult. Also, the forecasters said, weather fronts projected to pass north of New Mexico this season could whisk precipitation out of northern New Mexico and Arizona, potentially extending the fire season through August...more