… By all accounts, fire season across the West has arrived, months earlier than normal, ushered along by record breaking heat, drought and wind. The National Interagency Fire Center says this year’s fire season will be significant, noting regions of the Southwest and Great Basin have no snow at all. Melt-off in those areas is up to four to six weeks earlier than even the prior earliest melt-off dates. While the shocking lack of snowpack at high elevations and crispy grasses in lower elevations portend a potentially apocalyptic wildfire season, some wildfire experts look at those predictions with an asterisk. “The one thing that can save us from a bad fire season is if we get precipitation,” says Camille Stevens-Rumann, a Colorado State University fire ecology associate professor.

Other weather and water forecast news:

• The Coloradoan (Fort Collins): Will a super El Niño bring an epic ski season? It has before
• The Denver Gazette (Colo.): Three more waves of April snow possible after 10-plus inches hits some Colorado peaks
• KCRA (Sacramento, Calif.): North winds and rain chances in the forecast for Northern California over the next several days