SALT LAKE CITY — It may seem a little soon to think about wildfire season in Utah but as temperatures warm up, the risk for a fire also beings to climb.
Considering the wet winter and spring months, will wildfire season be all that bad? Experts say the moisture is a double-edged sword.
"The moisture is great," explained Kayli Guild, Fire communications and prevention coordination for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands. "However...it's a double-edged sword...that extra growth and that fuel load can definitely cause and create problems when things begin to dry out."
The grasses in the foothills and valleys are already green and growing quickly - it's pretty to look at but also extremely flammable.
Guild said she's concerned about what all the luscious grass might do to fuel a fire.
"I am, specifically in the valley floor desert areas, you know, much of Utah is a desert, right," she said. "So we might not see it as much maybe in the high terrain areas. But for sure, it could be a challenge. When you look at more of the desert areas in southwest Utah and central Utah."
The great basin coordination center prediction services expect a mild June and July as long as Utah receives some monsoonal moisture.
"It is a very different year. One of the things we actually look at is some of the trends," Guild said in part. "It might not be this year that we see a real uptick in wildfires, it might be next year might be the following."
The good news is even before this very wet season, the number of Utah wildfires recently decreased.
According to data from the National Interagency Coordination Center, roughly 2,700 acres of Utah land were burned in 2022: a 55 percent decrease from 2021.
In 2020 an overwhelming 330,000 acres were scorched in Utah, with 1,154 human-caused wildfires. Last year there was a major drop with only 476 fires sparked by people.
Experts are reminding Utahns to recreate responsibly.
"We want to see a decrease in our vehicle equipment-related roadside starts," Guild explained. "That's a that's an issue right now. Again, when you're going out to camping or anything along those lines, make sure that your camp fires completely out."
For more information on this year's fire regulations and fireworks restrictions this year, click here.
