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Western US facing severe summer wildfire risk |
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| USA: June 18, 2003 | ||
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SEATTLE — Western U.S. states, which had below-average rainfall last winter and are currently experiencing unusually dry weather, face a high risk of forest fires this summer, a local fire and land agency said Monday.
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Paul Werth, a weather expert at the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, said that a report due to be presented to state governors Tuesday will warn of the increased risk of major wildfires breaking out over the coming months in a region of the United States that is especially prone to raging summer blazes. "The biggest reason in combination is the dry weather that we've had in June and the fact that we don't see any significant rainfall through the remainder of the month," Werth said. Last year, dry winds fanned massive flames that were fueled by the region's oily and dense brush, forest, and grassland. Werth said that the Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon alone saw 3,700 fires burn 1.1 million acres of land: two to three times the yearly average. Forests on both sides of the Cascades mountain range, a North-South span of snow-capped mountains that span Washington and and Oregon, were at risk of spawning major blazes. Also at risk for major wildfires are most of California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah as well as the southern half of Idaho, the western third of Wyoming, southern Montana, and western Colorado, Werth said. The report is aimed at helping local communities and firefighters prepare for the blazes, but tight budgets in state governments might translate into less resources to fight the fires, which rage for weeks and can consume hundreds of thousands of acres of wooded forest.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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