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Predicting wildfire behavior with fuel moisture

Taylor Zarifis plucks live leaves off of sagebrush to demonstrate how to collect samples to measure fuel moisture levels.
Madelyn Beck
/
Mountain West News Bureau
Taylor Zarifis plucks live leaves off of sagebrush to demonstrate how to collect samples to measure fuel moisture levels.

The world of wildland firefighting has a lot of wonky lingo, but one key phrase is "fuel moisture" - and no, we're not talking about oil and gas. It refers to how much water is in certain plants that could fuel a wildfire.

The Mountain West News Bureau's Madelyn Beck explained how scientists measure it and why it's so important.

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