Snow helps end below-average wildfire season in West

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — With measurable snowfall already dusting parts of the Rocky Mountains and Northwest, the 2016 wildfire season has wrapped up in much of the West.

Jessica Gardetto of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, says wildfires are still active only in the Southwest,, especially Southern California. She says the West saw a below-average fire season overall, with about 7,500 square miles burned.

Gardetto says wet fall weather has tamped down the blazes.

Snow fell this week in several Western states. It covered Old Faithful on Monday in Yellowstone National Park, where wildfires burned this summer. And about a foot of snow fell in western Wyoming at elevations as low as 7,000 feet.

Gardetto says fire officials at the center will soon start looking ahead to next year.