Almost a quarter million acres have already burned in New Mexico as of May 4th – that is roughly double the number of acres burned there in all of 2021. Fire season in the Southwest used to start in May or June, because the vegetation fueling the fires did not typically dry out until then; now, however, those fuels are drying out as early as March/April. Also, fires are burning in areas that traditionally have not experienced wildfire, resulting in the transformation from desert ecosystems to grassland ecosystems. Grassland ecosystems are more conducive to the spread of wildfire, so the trend is even more acreage susceptible to wildfire in the Southwest.
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-mexico-arizona-dangerously-early-season.html