Wildfire — Looking for Another Frightening Year

In many parts of the West it still doesn’t look like summer. Rain, wind and cold seem to be how the season is being ushered in. However, cold and wet as it has been in some areas, the consensus from fire experts is that we’re going to have another very difficult wildfire summer.

According to Zesty.ai — the insurance wildfire tracker — four states are more at risk than the others. Three of them are the PIA Western Alliance states of California, Oregon and New Mexico. The fourth is Texas.

California —as you’d expect — is the biggest risk. Eight of the top-20 largest fires on record were in the Golden State. Over half of the acres burned in those eight fires were burned in the last couple of years.

Here are the details from Zesty.ai’s analysis:

1. California — The whole state is a powder keg. The last two years over 14,000 structures destroyed, and over 6 million acres burned.

2. Oregon — Crook, Grant, Jefferson, Lake and Deschutes counties have high wildfire risk. Look for lots of fire this summer.

3. New Mexico — Already this year 300,000 acres burned and over 600 structures destroyed. High drought conditions continue in the state’s heavily populated areas.

4. Texas — High drought levels in the Western portion of the state.

Source link: PropertyCasualty360.com — https://bit.ly/3NR8kPv