Fire officials are concerned that the wildfire season could arrive sooner than normal and remain active this year.
“We're going to have an earlier spring,” Park City Fire District Chief Pete Emery said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” on March 16. “We're going to have more growth early and then the possibility of, obviously, an earlier fire season. We are lucky up here in Park City in Summit County, where usually the fire season is later if you compare us to Salt Lake City. But with warmer [winters, wildfire season is] going to be earlier here as well.”
A lackluster winter has left snowpack at 57% of normal in Wasatch and Summit counties. Still, according to Utah Avalanche Center forecaster, Greg Gagne, high elevation, north-facing slopes still have 5 feet to 6 feet of snow cover.
As snowpack typically peaks in early April, a chance for a moisture-generating storm remains.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say I think we have at least one big storm ahead of us, so hopefully we’ll be talking about snowfall before the end of the season,” Gagne said.
But with a heat wave sweeping the West this week, any chance of building the snowpack is fading.
Emery says Summit County could put a firework ban in place as soon as April. Wasatch County has discussed an early ban as well. Crews have already responded to a wildland fire this year.
“It was within the last month that we had a brush fire in North Summit, and Park City Fire units responded to that and helped [their fire district] out. So wildfire season is here,” he said.
In preparation, the fire district asks residents to clean up brush and dry leaves around their homes and report any smoke sightings to authorities.
Weather forecasts for the coming week skip spring entirely, bringing summer temperatures to the region. The National Weather Service expects daytime highs to approach 30 degrees above average Thursday through Saturday. The heat wave could set new daily, or even monthly, records.