Park Williams on NPR: The Southwest’s spring wildfire season has started earlier than normal

Much of the West is now experiencing the driest conditions in 1,200 years. Fires are igniting weeks earlier and lasting longer because the winter snow is melting sooner. That means the brush is already extraordinarily dry.  “From a fire perspective, the dice are now loaded for another big fire year in 2022,’ says Park Williams, a UCLA professor who’s studying the fallout of this 23-year megadrought in the Western U.S.