Hot and dry weather has Nevada firefighters on alert

RENO - Record heat, scant precipitation and a rapidly melting snowpack have experts predicting a potentially disastrous fire season in the Sierra and across western Nevada.

"The whole West lost their snowpack, and that has put us in a pretty precarious situation," said Mike Dondero, fire and aviation chief for Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. "We've got pretty dry fuel conditions in the lower elevations and not much snowpack in the upper elevations.

"I think we've got the conditions for some pretty large fires."

News is better along the ranges of central Nevada, where drought conditions have discouraged grass growth in many areas, said Richard Wooley, predictive services manager for the Bureau of Land Management.

Decreased potential for major fires is expected in Churchill, Eureka, Nye and Mineral counties, as well as southern Pershing and Lander counties and much of Lyon and Douglas counties, Wooley said.

More normal fire conditions are expected in Washoe, Storey and Humboldt counties and northern Pershing County.

He is keeping a close watch on Elko County and portions of White Pine County, where winter snowfall and plentiful spring rain produced robust grass growth.

"I think we'll see some issues in Elko County this year," Wooley said. "The grass is definitely more impressive out there."

In the Sierra, there's little doubt fire danger will be extreme, said Jeanne Pincha-Tulley, fire officer for Tahoe National Forest. The Sierra's tree-covered western slope experienced roughly normal snowfall last winter, but it all evaporated, she said. "It's going to be one of those years."

Despite predictions of potentially dangerous conditions in 2003, last summer's fire season was a mild one as most thunderstorms were accompanied by heavy rain rather than lightning.

In Nevada, about 16,500 acres burned, compared with 81,500 in 2002, which also was a relatively mild season. During the five years from 1998 through 2002, an average of 1,016 fires burned an average of 679,478 acres of public and private land in Nevada.