Associated Press
Firefighters have been able to slow the growth of a massive wildfire burning in the mountains of northeastern New Mexico as they prepared Wednesday for another round of red-flag weather that has the potential to push the flames through more unburned territory. Forecasters warned that hot, windy and dry conditions have prompted warnings for high fire danger from southern Nevada through parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado starting Thursday. Most of the large fires so far this spring have been in Arizona and New Mexico, the largest of which has raced across more than 471 square miles (1,220 square kilometers) of forest that many fire managers have described as “ripe and ready to burn" due to a megadrought that has spanned decades and warm and windy conditions brought on by climate change.