Outlook for this summer looks hot and dry

NEW YORK, NY (CBS) - In the southwestern United States, the wildfire season is already off to an early start. In northern Arizona near the historic mining town of Crown King, a fire blew out of control due to hot, dry conditions and strong winds. And now comes more bad news, those conditions are likely to continue.

A new report by the federal government's Climate Prediction Center says the southern two-thirds of the nation is likely to be warmer than normal during June, July and August, especially in the southwest. That means the potential for the worst wildfire season in years.

"When your afternoon thunderstorms start erupting across the mountainous west this summer, often times they aren't packed with al lot of moisture, but they are packed with a lot of lightning. With that tinder dry, underbrush, and forest canopies there is a real concern of wildfire across the west this summer" said Professor David Robinson, a climatologist with Rutgers University.

It's not only the west that's going through a heat wave. In the mountains of North Carolina this year, winter never even seemed to happen. At a mini-marathon in Indianapolis earlier this month, runners collapsed in temperatures that were in the 80's and humidity near 100 percent.

In fact, according to the Climate Prediction Center, May 2011 through April 2012 was the warmest 12 month period in the U.S. since 1895, when the government first started keeping records.