Thirty wildfires have been contained or extinguished by CalFire since New Year’s Day. That’s six times the total on this date five years ago. There are signs that California could be in for a very trying summer. To learn what experts foresee, KRCB’s Marc Albert spoke with US Forest Service meteorologist Brent Wachter. Wachter works for Predictive Services, a federal, interagency weather forecasting group. They spoke via Zoom on Tuesday.

In their conversation, Wachter was asked for his general perception of the upcoming fire season.