Arizona’s peak fire season is winding down, and federal officials say total acreage burned this season was about average.
Dolores Garcia is with the Bureau of Land Management and says about 300,000 acres were burned in Arizona this year. She compared that to the 980,000 burned in 2020.
She says a number of factors impact how much fires are able to spread, such as rain.
"Sometimes we will see rain into May and June that has slowed the early onset peak of fire season. But then we will see years like this year where we get no monsoon and fairly active fire behavior into late September and October," Garcia said.
Garcia says fire seasons are expected to become longer and less predictable.
