![]() ![]() 1 These ecosystems are important resources, both environmentally and economically. Together, forests, shrubland, and grassland cover more than half of the land area in the United States. An average of 1.7 million acres burned in July of each year from 2002 to 2020. In 1984–2001, burned area peaked in August. wildfire season is occurring earlier (see Figure 6). Burned acreage in the West has increased noticeably in nearly every month of the year (see Figure 7). Fires burn more land in the western United States than in the East, and parts of the West and Southwest show the largest increase in burned acreage between the first half of the period of record in Figures 4 and 5 (1984–2001) and the second half (2002–2020). Land area burned by wildfires varies by state.Of the total area burned each year from 1984 to 2020, the proportion of burned land suffering severe damage has ranged from 5 to 23 percent (see "high" category in Figure 3).18 This shift-combined with other ongoing changes in temperature, drought, and snowmelt-may have contributed to warmer, drier conditions that have fueled wildfires in parts of the western United States. The late 1990s were a period of transition in certain climate cycles that tend to shift every few decades.The largest increases have occurred during the spring and summer months (see Figure 6). This period coincides with many of the warmest years on record nationwide (see the U.S. According to National Interagency Fire Center data, of the 10 years with the largest acreage burned, all have occurred since 2004, including the peak year in 2015 (see Figure 2). The extent of area burned by wildfires each year appears to have increased since the 1980s.The data do not show an obvious trend during this time. Compiled data from the Forest Service suggest that the actual total may be even higher for the first few years of nationwide data collection that can be compared. Since 1983, the National Interagency Fire Center has documented an average of approximately 70,000 wildfires per year (see Figure 1).Cal Fire’s names for the fires included a racial slur, so we have edited the word in accordance with Associated Press guidelines and our own standards. This means that the areas shown here do not necessarily represent burned areas.ĬapRadio changed the names of two fires from the names reported by Cal Fire. Geological Survey’s recorded wildfires, but it should be noted that not everything within a wildfire perimeter has burned. This map shows the perimeters of Cal Fire and the U.S. ![]() Because of that, Cal Fire’s data is less comprehensive than the data of their federal partners, which was used for the 2018 fires shown on this map. ![]() Forest Service, which have lower acreage requirements for recording fire perimeters. The USGS data comes from the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. However, the pre-1950 information shown here is incomplete and should not be used for further analysis.Ĭal Fire’s data on this map shows timber fires that burned more than 10 acres, brush fires that burned more than 50 acres and grass fires that burned more than 300 acres. Perimeter information from fires that started between 18 comes from Cal Fire, while information on the Thomas Fire and fires that started in 2018 comes from the USGS.Ĭal Fire says that their dataset - which runs from 1878 to 2017 as of January 2019 - is the most complete dataset of California wildfire perimeters before 1950. The wildfires are categorized by the year in which they started. This map shows the perimeters of wildfires that have burned in California from 1878 to 2018 using data from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the U.S. Large areas of desert in the southeast are mostly untouched due to lack of vegetation. It seems as if there is very little of California that has not been touched by wildfire. The map below shows all the cumulative fires from 1878 to 2018. Here is an interesting interactive graphic that depicts perimeters of more than 100 years of California wildfires recorded by Cal Fire and the U.S. ![]()
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