Among other things the year 2020 brought, there was a summer that burned with heat and fire across the region.

After a fairly wet winter with 3.27 inches of rainfall for the first four months (2.91 in February and March), things changed abruptly with a dry spell that lasted the remainder of the year. From May through November, just .073 inch of rain fell in total in Fountain Hills. The dry spell ended on Dec. 9-10 when .51 inch fell.

While temperatures remained fairly mild thorough much of May, the heat came on strong and lasted long. There were 16 days over the summer where the temperature reached 110 degrees or more. The highest, on three occasions, topped out at 113 (weather measurements from the Town of Fountain Hills taken at Fountain Park).

All the grasses and brush that grew lush through the beginning of the year were tinder by early June, and that is about the time things started to burn.

Firefighters from Rio Verde, Fountain Hills, Fort McDowell as well as Arizona State Forestry, and federal BIA and Tonto National Forest battled a brush fire that broke out during the early afternoon on Wednesday, June 3, between Fountain Hills and Rio Verde.

The fire scorched approximately 112 acres, all within the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation. Firefighters were assisted with air support in the way of water and fire retardant drops. The fire was 100 percent contained by 7:30 p.m. with BIA crews returning Thursday morning for additional mop-up operations.

Just a week later, on Saturday afternoon, June 13, one of the largest fires in state history began in the desert near SR 87 (Beeline Highway) and the Bush Highway about 12 miles northeast of Fountain Hills.

By late Sunday, June 14, the Bush Fire had grown to 14,000 acres. It ultimately scorched about 190,000 acres. The fire also had SR 87, the major highway between the Phoenix area and eastern mountains, closed to all traffic for more than a week, with traffic restrictions resulting in long delays for much of the remainder of the summer.

The fire consumed an area that extended from the Bush Highway north to SR 188 and east along the Salt River to SR 188 near Roosevelt Dam. The area includes the Four Peaks Wilderness in the Mazatzal Mountains. Residential areas evacuated included Punkin Center, Tonto Basin and Sunflower.

On Friday morning, Aug. 21, a television news helicopter showed video of a lone jogger in a remote area of McDowell Mountain Park attempting to extinguish the flames of a fire growing in the desert.

The fire had been ignited by a lighting strike late Thursday, Aug. 20. Flames against the dark sky on Thursday evening created some alarm among Fountain Hills residents.

The area of the blaze was somewhat inaccessible for fire apparatus and it was Friday morning that Arizona State Forestry began an aerial assault of the flames. On Sunday, Aug. 22, State Forestry officials reported the fire had burned through 615 acres and was declared extinguished.

The Town of Fountain Hills used its Code Red alert system to send a message to residents just before noon on Friday. Although the fire was in a remote area of the park is burned within about half a mile of residences in Fountain Hills. There was no evacuation.