Thanks for your interesting analysis. I'm not an expert in this field, but I have talked with a lot of folks up here, and everybody has been quite relieved that we had cooler weather and some rain. I know that a lot of rain can contribute to next season's fire danger because of increased growth of grasses, etc. I was also living in Santa Barbara when we had the big fire in 1990. The dust on our chaparral there didn't inhibit the fire at all, alas.

We were in Wyoming last month, and the folks there were just delighted to have cold rain on several of their many fires. It did, alas, ruin our trip to Glacier National Park! I guess that everything is a mixed bag.