BLM: Fire season due to start by late summer

Moisture from the state's historically wet winter and springtime rain is expected to lessen the fire risk during the early summer months, the Bureau of Land Management announced as it presented its yearly Wildland Fire Outlook report.

Produced at the National Interagency Fire Center, the report cautioned that range fires could grow larger than normal once vegetation and grasses dry out after receiving so much snow and rain.

"An unseasonably wet winter with record rainfall across parts of northern Nevada is priming an abundant grass crop while near-normal, long-term precipitation over portions of western Utah contributes to a flush of vegetation," the report stated. "Meanwhile, slow melting of above-normal snow pack continues across most high elevations."

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