CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval saw a cyclical 3-year pattern in summer wildfire damage since a whopping 1.9 million acres burned statewide in 1999.
The question he put Tuesday to representatives from more than a dozen state, federal and local agencies was: Is Nevada heading into a busy fire year in 2016?
State forester and fire warden Joe Freeland says the state will be impacted.
Forecasters say that after a fairly wet winter, the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin could see wildfire activity near or above long-term averages.
Plus, Freeland says rangeland grasses are flourishing after spring rains. They'll dry out and pose a fire risk this summer.
The last big wildfire year in Nevada was 2012, when more than 950 square miles of wildland burned.
But that's less than one-third of the nearly 3,000 square miles that burned in 1999.