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State officials warn Utahns wildfire risk to quickly rise this summer

Big forest fire and clouds of dark smoke in pine stands. Flame is starting to damage the trunk. Whole area covered by flame
Dmytro Gilitukha
/
Adobe Stock
Big forest fire and clouds of dark smoke in pine stands. Flame is starting to damage the trunk. Whole area covered by flame

Utah leaders are now warning there’s a new factor that will increase wildfire risk this summer.

Fire officials and forecasters gathered in Salt Lake City to break down this summer’s wildfire danger outlook Monday.

Governor Spencer Cox said many might believe there’s little to worry about on the heels of one of the snowiest winters in Utah history.

“I know what you're thinking: ‘Why are we talking about wildfire?’” he said. “But this is what we do in Utah; we move from one season to another.”

But he said the frequent rains in May actually fell short of the normal moisture mark for the month, and the snowpack and gushing runoff bring side effects that weren’t in play over recent summers.

The issue with all that moisture is that it has caused more grass, weeds and brush to grow.

That’s all fine for wildfire risk as long as it stays green and moist, but after a month or two of dry Utah summer, much of that growth will die and become fuel for sparks and flames.

Basil Newmerzhycky, a fire meteorologist at Great Basin Predictive Services in Salt Lake City, said to expect dry conditions to be in full effect in about a month.

“Between the grass, the weeds, the brush, there is a lot of it,” Newmerzhycky said. “It has been relatively dry for May, so some of that is starting to clear out. So, our big concern is, when will that really start yellowing out, curing out? Years where we have wet winters, we sometimes can get very busy [during] fire season, especially during the latter half of fire season.”

Cox thanked firefighters who fought thousands of wildfires that charred hundreds of thousands of acres in recent years. He also credited the public for an encouraging trend.

In 2020, humans caused roughly 80% of wildfires in Utah — roughly 1,100 of them. Since then, there’s been a 60% reduction in that share belonging to people, despite drier-than-normal conditions.

The next fire outlook update will be July 1. Newmerzhycky said that’s when forecasters will have more detailed information about the second half of summer, when they predict Utah will see the most worrisome fire conditions of the year.