Dry Weather: Good For Harvest, Bad For Firefighters

Dry weather is typically desired during harvest, but this year, it is extremely dry across the west.

"We continue to deal with historic wildfire conditions," said USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey. "Looking at just the pacific coast states, California, Oregon and Washington, there are more than four dozen active wildfires [as of Friday]."

Rippey pointed out the dry conditions of the past couple of months have made the tail-end of this wildfire season worse than normal, leading to hundreds of thousands of acres lost and thousands of people displaced. Rippey added Mother Nature is not making things any easier on impacted firefighters, with temperatures that are above normal.

"The only saving grace at the moment is winds are relatively light, but we have not received any wetting rains to this point."

The hope is systems will roll in from the Pacific in the coming days, providing some relief to firefighters across the West.

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