Drought-fueled fire still burns through Arizona forest
Joe Duhownik
(CN) — Climate experts recommend maintaining current drought declarations in Arizona as the largest fire of the year so far still raged on Tuesday near the Arizona-New Mexico border.
Named for the small town some 200 miles northeast of Phoenix, the Greer Fire has swallowed up more than 20,000 acres of grass and juniper-pine forest since it began on May 13, forcing evacuations and highway closures between the mountain towns of Greer and Springerville.
The fire was at 55% containment as of Tuesday morning, but rising temperatures and increasing winds going into the holiday weekend could exacerbate the burning.
The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management lifted evacuation orders and reopened the highway Monday afternoon, but Governor Katie Hobbs’ state of emergency declaration, allocating $200,000 toward fighting the fire, remains in effect.
The Democrat visited the Greer fire Saturday to speak with fire officials on the ground and get an aerial view of the burn.
“I know that there have been some homes lost, and I’m committed to helping those families get the resources they need post fire,” she said Saturday.
Nearly 700 state and federal personnel are on the ground fighting the flames. The cause is still under investigation.
Part of the fire has burned through the charred scar of the Wallow Fire — the largest fire in Arizona history that burned more than 500,000 acres of the White Mountains in 2011.
Following the second driest December on Arizona record and an overall dry winter thanks to a La Niña weather system, March and April garnered only 38% of the long term average precipitation recorded for those months, state Climatologist Erinanne Saffell told the Arizona Drought Interagency Coordinating Group Tuesday morning.
From October 2024, characterized by an uncharacteristic heatwave, through April 2025, Saffell said the state received only 2.5 inches of rain. The long term average for that seven-month period is 6.62 inches, and the average across the last 30 years is 5.6 inches.
“More than likely, we’re not gonna receive 100% of our average precipitation,” she said.
National Weather Service meteorologist Mark O’Malley said he expects the summer to be hotter than average, though perhaps not quite as hot as the multi-record-breaking heat experienced in 2024.
The good news?
“Monsoons following a dry La Niña largely are wet monsoons,” O'Malley said.
Though monsoon season is defined as June 15 to September 30, monsoon rains in the last few summers haven’t come until late July and August, if at all. This summer, O’Malley says there is a 60% chance of average precipitation and a 40% chance of above-average precipitation.
A wet monsoon season has historically marked the end of Arizona’s fire season, but recently fires have burned through the fall. Last year, the Soap and Horton fires burned in December.
“We don’t have a fire season anymore,” said Tiffany Davila, public affairs officer for the Department of Forestry and Fire Management. “We have year-round fire.”
By May 2024, only 89 fires burned across Arizona, eating up nearly 15,000 acres. This year, more than 400 fires have already burned, and the acreage has more than doubled.
Davila said the southeastern portion of the state is at the highest risk of fire this summer, though fires could migrate north, given the upper half’s lack of snowpack and above-average temperatures.