Arizona's Wildfire Season Forecast Looking Grim

[hatrack]

Dry conditions this year and heavy moisture last year could combine to make Arizona's imminent wildfire season the most devastating yet, experts told Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano at a round-table discussion Wednesday.

While Arizona wildfires have either struck in the high or low country in past years, wildland fire experts expect them to occur in both climates this year. "It could be the worst of last year with the worst of previous years combined," said state forester Kirk Rowdabaugh. "We've never had a situation where it's bad in the low elevations and bad in the high elevations ... We've got the worst of both worlds."

Very little moisture in the state this year has dried out vegetation in the north, leaving millions of acres of pine trees already weak from a decade of drought and bark beetle infestation tinder dry.

Such was the situation in the summer of 2002. That year, the Rodeo-Chediski fire in eastern Arizona destroyed hundreds of homes and scorched 469,000 acres, making it the single most destructive wildfire in state history.

EDIT

http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=4446336&nav=HMO6

[phantom power]

1. It's going to be bad. Low and Hi country are bone dry.

I have yet to hear anybody issue predictions about reservoir levels this year, or speak of water restrictions.