Wildfire season will be hot this year

According to national fire weather manager Rick Ochoa, of the Bureau of Land Management:

"The entire Gulf Coast, from bone-dry South Texas to all of Florida, is at higher risk (of wildfires) in part because a La Niña weather pattern has deprived the southern one-third of the continent of its normal parade of winter and spring storms. Relief in the form of thunderstorms may not take hold until June. Vast tracts of trees blown down by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and vegetation killed by saltwater storm surges means more fuel for fires."