Why Wildfire Experts Are So Worried About This Year’s Fire Season

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Why Wildfire Experts Are So Worried About This Year’s Fire Season

 

With a puny snowpack in the Western mountains and a widespread drought, the nation is a tinderbox. A reorganization of federal firefighting efforts and the departure of many staff qualified to join the fight are heightening concern.

 

By Peter Aldhous- Inside Climate News - May 31, 2026

 

As bad as things got in Los Angeles in January 2025, when 31 people died and more than 16,000 buildings were destroyed by wildfires roaring into residential neighborhoods, many wildland firefighters look back on the rest of last year as a dodged bullet. 

 

Across the nation, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), which coordinates the federal wildfire response, the total area burned in 2025 was about two-thirds of the average over the past 10 years.

 

This year is shaping up to be a very different prospect, wildfire experts warn. Key environmental indicators show that the nation is a tinderbox, gripped by widespread drought and with a light snowpack in the mountains that will offer little relief as its remnants melt away. 

 

At the same time, upheaval in the federal wildland firefighting effort and the loss of many staff qualified to join wildfire incident teams since Donald Trump took power for the second time have left firefighters deeply concerned about their ability to mount an effective response

 

“I think this is going to be the year,” warned Timothy Ingalsbee, co-founder and executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. “The conditions are just ripe for some really bad outcomes.”

 

Indeed, 2026 is already off to an inauspicious start.

 

As of Friday, the NIFC reported that some 2.4 million acres had burned in wildfires for which it had generated incident reports. That’s almost double the 10-year average for the time of year.

 

So far, much of the area burned this year has been in the southeast U.S. and Plains states, including Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. For the most part, these have been grass fires.

 

Now we are moving toward peak wildfire season for much of the West, where the availability of moisture to help prevent forests from igniting across the summer months depends heavily on the slow melting of snow that has accumulated over the previous winter.  

 

And that’s thin on the ground.

 

Full at:

 

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31052026/experts-warn-of-upcoming-wildfire-season/