This week's broiling heatwave in the US south-west is just the start of what experts warn will be a brutally hot summer, setting the stage for an active wildfire season even in places that don't burn often.
Grass fires are typically easier to contain and pose less of a threat to landscapes than those that roar through forest canopies but that doesn't mean they can't turn disastrous.
A wet winter weather was a boon and a threat. Repeated heatwaves can offset the benefit of having a lot of rain, said Dr Max Moritz, a wildfire specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension.
In March, dried grasses and high winds fueled flames that spread fast and wide through the sparsely populated ranges across the Texas Panhandle and into Oklahoma, scorching more than a million acres of cattle country.
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