Bone Dry

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Firefighters battle a wildfire near the North Canadian River in Oklahoma City on January 19, 2006. (Photo: AP Photo/KWTV News/Matthew Wells)

March 7, 2006

Arizona residents are watering the cacti. In the past four months, the Southwest has suffered through a historic drought. Phoenix, Arizona, has been without rain for four months. Tucson, Arizona, has recorded its driest winter on record. Firefighters are warning that the spring wildfire season could come earlier than ever.

"The conditions right now are about the worst we've seen," said Jim Payne, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service's Southwest region. "It's already brittle dry. All we need is ignitions to see potential fires."

Relief may be on the way. Three storms are predicted to move through the area, bringing some rain over the next seven days.

"What you need is not just one storm," said Rick Ochoa, national fire weather program manager for the Bureau of Land Management in Boise, Idaho. "You need a number of storms occurring over a month or two to really put a big dent in the fire season."

Last year, the Southwest had a wet season, allowing the grass to grow waist high. The grass is now brittle and prone to burn. A little rain would cause more grass to grow and become brittle fuel for fires.

Early Fire Season

The dryness is moving north, expanding a fire season that never really ended from last year. Parts of Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and California are now above normal risk for wildfires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center also expects higher than normal spring temperatures in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California, which could mean additional deadly wildfires.

Usually the fire season in the Southwest begins slowly in April and quickens in May and June. Fires are already burning.

In Arizona last month, a fire burned more than 4,000 acres in the Tonto National Forest. It was the earliest large fire ever.

In New Mexico, a grass fire of more than 26,000 acres forced out a small farming and ranching community last week. Wildfires and grass fires have also passed through Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.

Because of the extreme drought, the Forest Service imposed the earliest fire restrictions ever in Arizona and New Mexico. The government agency has received additional funding for the fire season for those states.

"We're just shattering the records for dryness for this winter in that part of the country," said Douglas LeComte, a drought specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center.

Tiffany Chaparro is a contributing writer for Scholastic News Online.

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