But after a record snow drought last winter, many experts overseeing the fire response don’t expect the moisture will fully extinguish the blaze anytime soon.

“To be honest, this thing is not going out,” said Joe Goudsward, a National Weather Service meteorologist assigned to the Willow fire. “You’re going to see puffs of smoke on this thing probably until the snow flies,” he said.

It’s a reality sinking in across the Mountain West as fires smolder well into the summer.

Honest question. Would it be reasonable to expect rain to extinguish a large fire? I am no firologist, but I would guess rain could slow the spread, but not even really prevent that entirely.

You'd need a lot of rain over a long time.

Too little too slow: it just evaporates.

More rain: boils off.

Lots over a short time just soaks into the soil, the flora still burns.

You'd need the rain to provide the same amount of water at the same rate as the firefighters are delivering in the same area.

Usually rain doesn't put out fires.

Cold weather and snow usually do during the next winter.

Sometimes the fires come back the following spring even after rain, snow and winter (holdover / zombie fires).