Wet Winter Likely To Delay Tahoe Area Fire Season

With snowpack 200 to 300 percent of normal, the Tahoe area fire season will likely be delayed this year. Grass is the primary fuel for wildfires. It probably won't be drying out until July and August.

"Sometimes we'll have things dry out as early as May and June," says Edan Weishahn with the National Weather Service office in Reno.

"The one thing that we know for sure, just because of the amount of water and the amount of snow and the amount of flooded locations, is that the fire season will just be a bit more delayed than it would be typically."

Weishahn says the fire season has the potential to get busy quickly mid to later summer once we have a few good heat waves.

"But the science and research really points to the following summer being the more active," says Weishahn.

That's because if next winter is normal, and a lot of grass from this year is still alive, there'll be a lot more fuel for wildfires.

Meanwhile, various Tahoe Basin fire agencies will take part in a training exercise next month to test out an Incident Command System in Minden, Nevada used to mobilize firefighting resources.