The Little Twist Fire burns in the Fishlake National Forest near Beaver, Utah, on Monday, July 1, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Utah Fire Info)
With much of Utah expected to see ripe wildfire conditions for the foreseeable future, restrictions are in place and officials are on edge heading into the holiday weekend.
Anyone looking for a rainy reprieve on the heels of one of the hottest Junes on record in Utah will have to wait, says Basil Newmerzhycky, lead meteorologist with the Great Basin Coordination Center, an interagency group that includes the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and state agencies.
Summer monsoons, which often bring rain to parts of Utah during the summer, are currently being suppressed and are “highly unlikely” for the rest of July, said Newmerzhycky. That means the fire outlook will only worsen, with vegetation across the state continuing to dry.
“We’re expecting our fuels to dry out to critical levels, probably statewide, in the next five to 10 days,” he said on Tuesday.