fire behavioral experts and climatologists have warned that heavy rains from months early in the year have produced an excess of vegetation that would become an abundance of dry fuel later in the year as the fire season gets underway. according to the us forest service and us department of the interior officials, early projections indicated that the fire season would possibly be worse than the year prior, stating that "if we're lucky, this year will simply be a challenging one." this assessment was written on the basis of noting that the state has recently been seeing consistently destructive fires more often than ever before.