The science could not be clearer. The burning of fossil fuels is making the Earth hotter. That makes trees and other vegetation drier. And those conditions make wildfires start more easily, burn hotter, and spread faster. These hot, dry conditions increase the likelihood that wildfires will be more intense and burn longer, making them harder to put out.
Every year since 1980, the extent of area burned in the US has increased. Highly detrimental to the environment, people’s health and livelihoods, wildfires are destroying forests, agriculture, and communities.
In 2020, ten percent of the population had been evacuated in Oregon and critical populations of endangered species and native habitats incinerated. It is questionable whether they will ever recover. Unimaginably, the smoke travelled 3,000 miles to Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland and over the Atlantic.
In 2020, California’s wildfires were its second-largest source of greenhouse gases, after transportation, according to a study published in 2022. The researchers from UCLA and the University of Chicago concluded that the 2020 wildfires increased overall emissions by about 30%.
Extraordinary photographs were published in the New York Times on September 10, 2020.
By July 31, 2024 the Park Fire in northern California took the record as the state’s fifth largest on record after burning for less than a week. By August 8, it was the 4th largest. By October 4, 2024, there were still 6,604 wildfires burning in California, covering a total of 1,003,469 acr
As of October 7, 2024 wildfire activity continued in seven states, where large wildfires remained active: Idaho (15), Oregon (8), California (4), North Dakota (2), Montana (2), Wyoming (2) and Utah (1) – having burned 1,212,359 acres.
2025
One of the worst natural disasters in U.S. wildfire history started on January 7, 2025, when a series of wildfires ravaged Southern California. The two largest fires, the Eaton fire and the Palisades fire, were the second and third most destructive fires in the state’s history. Lasting until January 31, 2025, the fires caused 31 direct deaths, with an additional 440 deaths linked to the fires after. Over 200,000 people were forced to evacuate, with the fires burning almost 60,000 acres and destroying 19,000 homes and businesses. Factors contributing to the rapid spread included the abnormally dry year, extreme Santa Ana hurricane force winds, low humidity, and vegetation build up. Holdover fires, or “zombie fires,” caused by reignitions of previous fires, like the Palisades fire, are becoming increasingly more common as climate change exacerbates megafires and extreme wind.
The largest wildfire in the continental U.S. in 2025 was the Dragon Bravo Fire in Arizona which burned 145,000 acres.
Wikipedia is keeping an astonishing record, month by month from which we are summarizing only the worst (more than 10,000 acres burnt):
In February, 2025, 15,800 acres were burned in Nebraska.
In March, 2025, 12,327 acres burned in Oklahoma; 33,928 in South Dakota; 26,719 in Florida; 23,287 in Texas; 27,866 acres in Oklahoma; 21,433 in New Mexico; 31,232 and 10,230 and 11,192 and 10,900 and 23,335 more in Oklahoma; 15,973 in South Carolina; 18,552 in Nebraska.
In April, 2025, 15,300 acres burnt in New Jersey.
In May, 2025, 12,071 and 16,145 acres burnt in Minnesota; 20,308 in Arizona.
In June, 2025, 10,458 acres burnt in Oregon; 34,943 ad 15,6775 in Utah; 57,753 and 47,294 and 17,415 and 24,178 in New Mexico; 29,280 and 117,908 and 19,634 and 12,604 and 26,686 in Alaska; 26,000 in California; 24,112 and 16,848 and 16,190 and 30,988 and 13,619 and 17,337 and 12, 576 and 14,525 and 19,650 and 16,337 and 72,216 and 23,827 and 19,889 and 20,470 and 29,210 and 13,268 and 34,837 and 64,065 and 16,018 in Alaska; 17,714 in Nevada; 11,027 in Arizona..
In July, 2025, 80,786 and 19,022 and 21,058 acres burnt in California; 17,583 in Nevada; 145,504 and 27,574 in Arizona; 14,526 in Alaska; 35,161 and 16,260 in Nevada; 17,724 in Utah; 31,699 and 10,249 in Colorado; 95,736 and 31,192 in Oregon; 73,721 in Utah; 10,675 in Washington; 12,973 in Oregon; 22,605 and 26,922 in Idaho.
In August 2025, 14,943 acres burnt in Idaho; 131,614 and 59,844 and 11,929 in California; 82,216 and 132,604 in Nevada; 14,518 and 137,758 in Colorado; 10,668 in Nevada; 18,041 in Arizona; 124,709 and 10,657 in Wyoming; 48,000 in Florida; 19,466 in Wyoming; 23,346 and 33,127 in Oregon; 14,333 and 14,192 in Washington.
In September 2025, 37,238 and 39,594 and 21,845 acres burnt in Washington; 25,643 in California; 18,387 and 43,842 in Oregon.
More to come.
Increasing 
