Forest Fire Update

A total of 6,331,568 acres have been lost to forest fires so far in 2018.

Forest fires occurred in 14 Western States in 2018. These States are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. 

Acres lost in forest fires has averaged 5 million acres per year with an average of 46,099 fires over the past 10 years.

Acres lost by year range from 2.7 million acres in 2010 and 2014 to 7.3 million acres in 2015.  The current fires have consumed 6.3 million acres so far in 2018.

Acres lost by State include:

Alaska   269,080

Arizona   35,505

California 789,820

Colorado 199,453

Idaho   172,278

Minnesota 472

Montana 52,217

Nevada 199,563

New Mexico 942

Oregon 361,840

Texas 424

Utah 43,806

Washington 119,019

Wyoming 4,745

Total 6,331,568 acres

Converting acres to square miles, this 6,331,568 acres converts to 9893 square miles. This is bigger than Vermont at 9616 square miles and approaching Massachusetts at 10,554 square miles.

https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/nfn.htm

The Sierra Nevada blaze was one of 50 fires burning about 500,000 acres across the nation, the National Fire Information Center said. In the west, wildfires continued to burn in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

California Burning - Total acres lost to date in the California forest fires is 1,116,957, that’s 1.117 million acres lost in 2018 as of 8/19/18.  640 acres equal 1 square mile, so the fires have consumed 1745.25 square miles. The entire State of Rhode Island has a land area of 1545 square miles, next is Delaware with 2489 square miles.

http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_stats

Comments

Note that the number of acres lost in California differs by website. These are the only two forest fire websites I’ve found that give the big picture.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader