An unusually intense monsoon last year will lead to increased fire danger in Arizona this year, the state forester said Thursday.
Jeff Whitney acknowledged that winter rains this year have been a fraction of what is normal. Usually that moisture results in intense growth of grasses that, once they dry out, become fuel for wildland fires.
But he said that’s only part of the picture of what creates fire hazards.
“The finer fuels that provide so much of a challenge for us across all elevations in Arizona are primarily dependent on spring moisture but even more so on summer monsoons,” Whitney said.
“Last year’s summer monsoon season was very strong,” he explained, with a lot of rainfall. “And then we had 120 days without any measurable precipitation anywhere in the state.”
Add to that, Whitney said, was an extensive fire season last year, with more than twice as many acres burned as the prior year.
“But because of the monsoons, everything that burned regrew,” he said.
But it isn’t just grasses.
“Chaparral is stressed, ponderosa pine and pinion juniper lands, they’re all stressed at this point because of the drought,” Whitney said.
Gov. Doug Ducey last month asked the Legislature to set aside $2 million for wildfire prevention this coming budget year, double the amount allocated this year. The dollars would be used to remove brush and other dangerous fuels.
The governor’s office also said it has identified $640,000 in federal dollars that can be used to prepare forest for timber thinning.
“The climactic outlook for the next three months is quite alarming,” Whitney said.
