Bighorn Fire

Smoke from the Bighorn fire blows Northeast over the Catalina mountains on June 30, 2020 in Tucson, Ariz. Photo taken from E. Speedway Blvd.

 Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

The Bighorn Fire reached 92% containment this weekend with the help of the monsoon's first storm. 

But as storms start to move into the Tucson metro area, fire officials warned there's a high risk of flash floods with less vegetation on the mountains. 

Buck Wickham, an operations chief with the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, on Sunday said the storm and the increase in humidity 'put a damper' on the fire, especially in the Willow Canyon area which has kept burning as the rest of the fire is contained. 

There was rain "across pretty much all of the fire," Jeremy Michael, the Bighorn Fire incident meteorologist, said Sunday afternoon. He said the few parts that didn't get rain got enough moisture increase to help the fire, with most areas in the northern mountains getting between .10 and .25 inches of rain. 

There were also no signs of flash flooding from Saturday's storm, but Michael said people should not become complacent and should heed the warnings of flash flooding from agencies including the National Weather Service as monsoon storms continue. 

"We're fully expecting at some point this summer one of these storms is going to move across the right drainage at the right slope and we're going to see some increased flows," Michael said. 

Wickham echoed those warnings, saying the fire's burn scar has burned most vegetation on parts of the mountain range.  

"The northeast side of the fire and the northwest side of the fire burnt very hot," he said. "There is hardly any vegetation left up there and that creates a severe flash flooding risk"

The road to Mount Lemmon will stay closed to visitors for the foreseeable future, James Allerton, spokesman for the Pima County Sheriff's Department, said. He said the Forest Service tells the Sheriff's Department when it's safe to open the road. 

Fire crews worked Sunday to finish repairing fire lines around the fire, especially in the Summerhaven area before handing the reins back over to the Coronado National Forest, Wickham said. 

CJ Woodard, district ranger for the Santa Catalina Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest, said remaining crews have to inspect trails to make sure they're safe before they reopen to the public. 

Wickham said significant rain will get the fire 100% contained, as land west of Catalina Highway near Willow Canyon continues to burn. 

The Bighorn Fire has burned 119,250 acres across the Catalinas. 

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Contact reporter Stephanie Casanova at scasanova@tucson.com. On Twitter: @CasanovaReports