It looks like El Nino rains are coming up short in yet another way for California in 2016 as wildfire-fighters are looking at a potential disaster that's been created by millions of dead trees in California's forests. As U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the AP Tuesday, the five-year drought left about 29 million trees dead in the last year alone, and perhaps 40 million total standing dead and fire-prone statewide, and as many as 58 million, per another study, that are suffering severe water loss.

The statements came as part of a plea from Vilsack, which he's made before, to have Congress fund major wildfire fights not from the Forest Service budget, but from disaster emergency funds instead.

“You’ve got 40 million dead trees. You’ve got 40 million opportunities for fire,” Vilsack said, and as the Chronicle reports. “You’re looking at a very serious situation.”

The drought has impacted fir trees all over by allow the proliferation of bark beetles. As we learned via this video, reposted below, lack of rain has the trees with little sap, which acts as a natural defense against the beetles, which when left unchecked lead to the death of whole swaths of forest.

Add to that other serious problems affecting other tree populations, like Sudden Oak Death, and you have a perfect storm of multiple California forests that are primed to go up in flames if anything sparks them.

As Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant tells the Chron, "No level of rain is going to bring the dead trees back. We’re talking trees that are decades old that are now dead." He adds, "Those larger trees are going to burn a lot hotter and a lot faster. We’re talking huge trees in mass quantity surrounding homes."

As is typical, the highest fire risks will be in Southern California, the southern and central Sierra, and the foothills of the Sacramento Valley.

In the good news column, there have been slightly fewer small fires to put out to date this year than there were by this time last year, according to Cal Fire: 931 down from about 1,200.

Related: Many Of California's Trees Are In Serious Danger Of Sudden Death