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By Anna Skinner
Associate News Editor
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- California has experienced a higher than average snowpack this season, which is expected to reduce the impacts of the 2023 wildfire season.
- However, the excessive growth of foliage that has formed this spring could serve as prime fuel for wildfires in the summer months.
- AccuWeather's wildfire report said that winter storms have knocked down trees and limbs, which can become fuel for fires later in the year.
- AccuWeather forecast that 400,000 to 1 million acres could burn this wildfire season in California.
- The highest-risk areas for wildfires in the U.S. are the Pacific Northwest, Florida, western Texas, eastern New Mexico, western Oklahoma, western Kansas and southern and eastern Colorado.
Moisture-laden storms have inundated California during the state's wet season and will likely reduce the impacts of the 2023 wildfire season.
California was subject to more than a dozen atmospheric rivers that dumped loads of rain and snow on the state and nearly wiped out the state's drought for the first time in years. A higher than average snowpack is expected to continue saturating California streams, rivers and reservoirs through June, delaying the onset of the state's wildfire season.
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However, a new wildfire prediction report from AccuWeather says that the excessive foliage growth from all the rain provides a substantial amount of "short-term fuels" such as grasses, brush and plants.
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AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham told Newsweek that California's wildfire risk for April, May and June is extremely low and is attributed to the excess rain storms experienced by the state, which have provided moisture for the soil and filled some reservoirs to capacity. A few late-season storms and the continuation of the snowpack melt from the mountains will continue to moisten the soil and supplement bodies of water.
However, the "expansive greening of foliage" that has formed this spring, according to Buckingham, will serve as prime fuel in the summer months. The excessive rain has led to the first super bloom—prolific swaths of wildflowers and other small plants—since 2019, which can later dry out and fuel fires.
"We can expect a steady drying out of the fuels, as we call it, as we progress to the summer months," Buckingham said.
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The AccuWeather wildfire report also that winter storms knocked down trees and limbs, which can also become fuel for wildfires later in the year.
Buckingham said fires could begin in earnest in July and progress through August, September and October. He forecasts that 400,000 to 1 million acres could burn this wildfire season, which is slightly below California's average of 1 million acres burning per season.
"That is attributed to the extreme precipitation pattern and continued cool conditions," he said.
AccuWeather's wildfire report shows California is not bearing the brunt of the wildfire risk this season. Much of the state's western and northern regions are classified as having "some" wildfire risk, with northeastern and southeastern California classified as having "moderate" risk. Only the northeastern corner of the state falls under the "high risk" category.
The highest-risk areas for wildfires in the U.S. will be in the Pacific Northwest, concentrated in eastern Washington, Oregon and much of Idaho. Florida also has a high risk for wildfires, along with western Texas, eastern New Mexico, western Oklahoma and Kansas and southern and eastern Colorado.
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