Officials predict heavy snows may dampen summer wildfires

SALT LAKE CITY — If current wildfire season predictions pan out, Utah may be an island of green in an otherwise dry West.

While fire conditions in several Western states are expected to worsen, heavy winter precipitation is expected to keep fire danger in Utah to average levels.

According to a report that outlines regional wildfire predictions, winter conditions across the Great Basin area "stretched across extremes."

Mountains in southern Utah experienced snowfall well above normal, while northern Utah snow remained sparse. Idaho and Wyoming experienced one of the driest years ever.

"It's impossible to predict the weather, but the way things are looking we will have a fairly normal to below-normal fire season across the state," said Jason Curry, spokesman for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.

Some mountains in the south and central parts of the state will be at a lower-than-normal risk for fire through August, while most of Utah will stay average.

Across the western United States, however, many areas will face drier-than-usual seasons after an El Niño season warmed the southern Pacific Ocean, said Robyn Heffernan, the deputy fire weather program manager for the National Interagency Fire Center.

"A lot of the northern half of the western United States got significantly less snowfall over the winter, which will mean drier fuels once summer arrives," she said.

The mountains of the Southwest, including Utah, received above-average snowfalls thanks to the same oceanic warming that kept the Northwest dry.

While June 1 usually marks the beginning of fire season in Utah, Curry said because of the moisture, any fires will likely be delayed while trees and brush dry out.

"While the fuels dry out and cure, that start date will be delayed," he said.

Some areas in northern Utah are just emerging from under the layer of late snow, added Kathy Jo Pollack, a spokeswoman for the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest.

"We're at such a higher elevation that our fire season is very delayed," she said.

According to a national report, these high-elevation areas will likely not dry to "critical levels" before summer rains begin to fall.

All this could be good news for Utah but fire crews are still preparing for the worst, Pollack said.