Drought watch = fire watch

John Fleck has written about science for the Journal since 1990. His specialties include nuclear weapons work at Sandia and Los Alamos labs and the federal budgets that drive them, along with New Mexico's tenuous water situation and the climate issues that underly it. He's worked as a newsman since before he could drink legally, covering NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory before moving to New Mexico to work at the Journal.

He's been a fellow and contributing editor at Stanford University's Bill Lane Center for the American West, where he worked on water issues with the center's Rural West Initiative. He's the author of A Tree Rings' Tale, a University of New Mexico Press book for young people about the science of climate, water and weather.

Email John | Twitter: @jfleck