Incident Summary
June of 1990 will long be remembered as one of the hottest months in Arizona history. On June 26th the temperature rose to record temperatures of 122 F in Phoenix and to 106 F in Payson. In addition to the extreme temperatures, Arizona had been in a severe 3 year drought, the combination producing a critically high fire danger throughout the state, especially the Mogollon Rim country and the Tonto National Forest north of Payson. Fuels in the area are primarily ponderosa pine with an understory of mixed oak, manzanita, needle and leaf litter, and scattered large (greater than 6 inch diameter) dead logs. Much of the understory brush is heavily draped with very dry pine needles. Live fuel moisture of the manzanita and oak is very low (76%), fine dead fuel moisture is 3% and 8% for larger dead fuels.