Before you do anything else, you might want to take a look at a N.Y. Times map tracking the wildfires in the west…

WILDFIRES

WILDFIRES

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.

Highly detrimental to the environment, people’s health and livelihoods, wildfires are destroying forests, agriculture, and communities. Accelerating in their devastation year after year, by mid-September, 2020, five of the 10 largest wildfires in California’s history – including THE largest ever – had happened. 79 large wildfires were still  actively burning in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming leveling acreage the size of New Jersey, with one in every 33 acres burned in the state of California. In Oregon, ten percent of the population had been evacuated 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.

Extraordinary photographs were published in the New York Times on September 10, 2020.

 

CURRENT NEWS

Why epic California rains might not prevent a dangerous fire season

By Hayley Smith 01/31/23
It’s something of a Golden State paradox: Dry winters can pave the way for dangerous fire seasons fueled by dead vegetation, but wet winters — like the one the state has seen so far —…
Read more
AP

AI wildfire detection bill gets initial approval in Colorado

By Jesse Bedayn 01/23/23
A year after the most destructive wildfire in the state’s history scorched nearly 1,100 homes, Colorado lawmakers are considering joining other Western states by adopting artificial intelligence in the hopes of detecting blazes before they…
Read more

Wish You Were Here. Ignore the Floods and Fires.

By Lydia DePellis 12/10/22
Climate change is reshaping the American economy. New Mexico is leaning on ecotourism and sustainable industries to see it through, but extreme weather keeps getting in the way....
Read more

Smoke From California Wildfires Dimmed Solar Energy in 2020

By Cristen Hemingway Jaynes 12/09/22
In September of 2020, the smoke from major wildfires in California made the skies so dark that the state’s solar power production was reduced by 10 to 30 percent during peak hours, according to a…
Read more

Ancient Indigenous practice could curtail today’s wildfires

By Ayurella Horn-Muller 12/08/22
A study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances found that historical Indigenous "cultural burning" curtailed wildfire patterns on local scales over a period of roughly 400 years in the southwestern U.S.Driving the news: As…
Read more

Global Warming Fuels More Frequent Wildfires In The Arctic—Which Leads To More Global Warming, Study Finds

By Madeline Halpert 11/03/22
TOPLINE Rising global temperatures have sparked more frequent wildfires in the Arctic in recent years, according to a new study published in Science, a trend that is expected to worsen as earth’s temperature continues to…
Read more

Official: 2021 Colorado wildfire losses surpass $2 billion

10/27/22
A wildfire that destroyed nearly 1,100 homes and businesses in suburban Denver last winter caused more than $2 billion in losses, making it by far the costliest in Colorado history, the state insurance commissioner said.
Read more

Californians Who Fortify Their Homes Against Wildfires Will Now Pay Less for Insurance

By Lauren Leffer 10/19/22
California homeowners might soon see some reprieve in skyrocketing property insurance rates. That is, if they take steps to wildfire-proof their houses. The West Coast state is the first in the country to require insurance…
Read more

Mobile Homes, the Last Affordable Housing Option for Many California Residents, Are Going Up in Smoke

By Anne Marshall-Chalmers 10/02/22
But she was more exasperated than scared. She had lived at Creekside Mobile Home Park on Dam Road for 17 years and had lost track of all its close calls with wildfires. Creekside, a park…
Read more

Column: California spends billions rebuilding burned towns. The case for calling it quits

By Erica D. Smith and Others 09/27/22
Most days, Ken Donnell steals a moment to gaze at the forested valley that surrounds this remote grid of streets in the mountains.Before the Dixie fire came barreling through the Sierra Nevada last year, leveling…
Read more

Western Forests, Snowpack and Wildfires Appear Trapped in a Vicious Climate Cycle

By Bob Berwyn 09/26/22
When Stephanie Kampf visited one of her wildfire test plots near Colorado’s Joe Wright Reservoir in June of 2021, the charred remains of what had been a cool, shady spruce and fir forest before the…
Read more

In California, a Race to Save the World’s Largest Trees From Megafires

By Twilight Greenaway 09/23/22
When the Washburn Fire burned through part of Yosemite’s iconic Mariposa Grove in July, photos of its famed giant sequoias steeped in smoke and surrounded by automated sprinklers to shelter them from the flames shocked…
Read more

KEY RESOURCES

Wildfires

09/13/22
Climate change is increasing the size, frequency, and intensity of wildfires as well as the length of the fire season. All fire needs to burn is an ignition source and plenty of fuel. While climate…

As Wildfires Grow, Millions of Homes Are Being Built in Harm’s Way

09/09/22
Across the Western United States, wildfires are growing larger and more severe as global warming intensifies. At the same time, new data shows, more Americans than ever are moving to parts of the country more…

California’s wildfire season is here. How to get ready

08/27/21
The Great Plains have tornadoes. The Southeast has hurricanes. And California has earthquakes and wildfires. More than 4 million acres were burned last year in what was the state’s worst wildfire season to date. So…

Facts + Statistics: Wildfires

09/16/20
As many as 90 percent of wildland fires in the United States are caused by people, according to the U.S. Department of Interior. Some human-caused fires result from campfires left unattended, the burning of debris,…

Wildfires and Climate Change: Visualizing the Connection in Five Sets of Photos and Charts

09/08/20
Every year, millions of acres of land are consumed by fire in the United States. By raising temperatures, melting snow sooner, and drying soils and forests, climate change is fueling the problem. Here’s what we…

Eden Reforestation Project

11/18/19
Eden Reforestation projects reduces extreme poverty and restores healthy forests by employing local villagers to plant millions of trees every year.

Global Forest Watch

09/09/19
Forest Monitoring Designed for Action: Global Forest Watch offers the latest data, technology and tools that empower people everywhere to better protect forests.

MORE NEWS

Wildfire Smoke Is Erasing Progress on Clean Air

By Mira Rojanasakul   09/22/22  
Smoke from wildfires has worsened over the past decade, potentially reversing decades of improvements in Western air quality made under the Clean Air Act, according to research published Thursday from Stanford University.
Read more

Wildfires are burning higher in the West, threatening water supplies

By Joshua Partlow   09/22/22  
Two years ago, a wildfire started burning in Colorado’s Arapaho National Forest. Fanned by high winds and parched conditions, the East Troublesome fire raced up the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, at one point crossing…
Read more

‘Significant fire season slowing’ rain set to soak Northern California

By Diana Leonard   09/16/22  
An unusual September storm is set to arrive in California late this weekend, providing a much-needed pause on the state’s rapidly deteriorating wildfire season.
Read more
CNN

Oregon wildfire explodes in size as multiple blazes rage across the West

By Nouran Salahieh   09/12/22  
An outburst of wildfires that broke out over the past week amid triple-digital temperatures across the West has forced thousands of evacuations and choked the air with smoke as strong winds complicated firefighting efforts.
Read more

Cedar Creek Fire, one of 21 fires burning in Oregon, forces evacuations

By Bryan Pietsch   09/12/22  
The Cedar Creek Fire in central Oregon, which has scorched more than 86,000 acres, forced rural residents to flee their homes over the weekend before officials slightly curbed evacuation orders Sunday night for just one…
Read more

As Wildfires Grow, Millions of Homes Are Being Built in Harm’s Way

By Nadja Popovich and Others   09/09/22  
Across the Western United States, wildfires are growing larger and more severe as global warming intensifies. At the same time, new data shows, more Americans than ever are moving to parts of the country more…
Read more

Northern California wildfire wipes out neighborhood with frightening speed

By Alex Wigglesworth   09/04/22  
Jane Coolidge and her husband, Bruce, were driving past the town of Weed, Calif., on Friday when they saw a huge plume of black smoke. Flames had engulfed a large commercial building, and debris hit…
Read more

California wildfire burns at least 50 structures and forces thousands to flee.

By Mandy Feder- Sawyer and Others   09/02/22  
A wind-whipped fire that erupted near a defunct lumber mill in Northern California on Friday and became a fast-moving inferno has destroyed at least 50 structures, including homes, and prompted the evacuation of thousands of…
Read more

As forests go up in smoke, so will California’s climate plan

By Tony Briscoe   08/29/22  
When lightning ignited the bone-dry foothills of the Sierra Nevada last year, forestry crews fanned out across Sequoia National Park to defend an ancient grove of California redwoods from wildfire. As smoke wafted through a…
Read more

Wildfire smoke is choking Indigenous communities

By Diana Kruzman   08/24/22  
On July 29, 2021, Li Boyd woke up to the smell of smoke. It was her birthday — she was turning 38 — and she had rented a boat to take her parents and aunts…
Read more

Wildfire and electric grid: Crisis requires long-term planning rather than rapid response

By Cassie Koerner   08/11/22  
Wildfires are a top priority for land management agencies and utilities, as the number, size and intensity have increased along with the cost to battle these mega-blazes. While not all wildfires are caused by the…
Read more

McKinney fire levels homes, destroying a lifetime of memories in a flash

By Hayley Smith and Others   08/01/22  
Days after the McKinney fire broke out in Northern California, anxious residents peppered officials with questions during a community meeting in Yreka on Monday night. “When can we go back home?” one person asked. “Can…
Read more

Why Does the American West Have So Many Wildfires?

By Winston Choi-Schagrin and Others   08/01/22  
In just one weekend, the McKinney Fire, fueled by strong winds and high temperatures, burned more than 55,000 acres in Northern California, becoming the state’s largest wildfire so far this year. The blaze is only…
Read more

These maps show severe fires are morphing California forests into something we won’t recognize

By Yoohyun Jung   07/25/22  
Many of the largest wildfires in recent U.S. history have happened in California just in the past few years, including last year's Dixie Fire, which burned nearly a million acres across four counties. Seven others…
Read more

How wildfires impact our health, as well as the environment

By Jamie Hailstone   07/13/22  
It is a sad truth that many parts of the world - including various parts of the United States - are now facing an increased risk of wildfires.
Read more

A case for retreat in the age of fire

By Emily E. Schlickman and Others   07/13/22  
Wildfires are getting larger, more frequent and more severe in many areas. Although efforts are underway to create fire-adapted communities, it’s important to realize that we cannot simply design our way out of wildfire –…
Read more

Out-of-control Yosemite fire threatens iconic giant sequoias

By Alex Wigglesworth and Diana Marcum   07/09/22  
The first that Michael Gilbert, a 67-year-old rock climber and bellman, heard of the fire in Yosemite National Park was from a mother and daughter who drove up breathless on Friday.
Read more

Extreme lightning sparks more Alaska wildfires in already historic season

By Jacob Feuerstein and Joshua Partlow   07/06/22  
An unusual spate of lightning has ignited more than 50 new wildfires in Alaska, worsening air quality, spurring communities to prepare to evacuate and exacerbating an already historic fire season in the state.
Read more
AP

WA wildfire prompts evacuations for people in 50 homes

06/29/22  
People in about 50 homes near a wildfire in central Washington were told by law enforcement to leave their homes immediately on Tuesday afternoon. The Grant County Sheriff’s Office said at about 2:45 p.m. that…
Read more
AP

Interstate 84 closed in eastern Oregon due to wildfire smoke

06/29/22  
The Oregon Department of Transportation said the interstate was closed westbound in Ontario and eastbound in Baker City because of smoke from a wildfire.
Read more
AP

Northern California wildfire threatens 500 buildings

06/29/22  
The Rices Fire erupted at around 2 p.m. near the Yuba River in Nevada County and had spread to more than 500 acres (202 hectares) by nightfall, said Unit Chief Brian Estes of the California…
Read more

Arizona wildfires gut observatory buildings, endanger artifacts

By Marisa Iati   06/23/22  
In the latest example of the expanding reach of wildfires, a trio of blazes in Arizona has gutted several buildings at a national observatory, forced the evacuation of a historical monument and threatened other archaeological…
Read more

Track Wildfires in the West

By Matthew Bloch, Bea Malsky and Others   06/22/22  
The map includes active and recent fires reported by the Wildland Fire Interagency Geospatial Services Group. The locations of the fires on the map are approximate, derived from data reported by the NASA FIRMS satellite-based…
Read more

A wildfire year

By Ashley Wu and Matthew Cullen   06/20/22  
The American West is burning more quickly than it has in a decade. New Mexico has been fighting its two biggest wildfires on record for more than a month. About 3 million acres of U.S.…
Read more

Arizona Wildfire Destroys Observatory Buildings

By Neelam Bohra   06/19/22  
The fire, known as the Contreras fire, has scorched more than 18,000 acres, twisting among Indigenous-populated areas in the state near Tucson, and scientists might not be able to return to the observatory for weeks.…
Read more

Pollution from California’s 2020 wildfires likely offset decades of air quality gains

By Tony Briscoe   06/17/22  
In an analysis published this week in the annual Air Quality Life Index, researchers found that wildfire smoke probably offset decades of state and federal antipollution efforts, at least temporarily.
Read more

California Wildfire Scorches Nearly 1,000 Acres and Prompts Evacuations

By Christine Chung   06/13/22  
A fast-moving wildfire in California’s Angeles National Forest has grown to nearly 1,000 acres in a little more than a day, prompting road closures and the evacuation of a large portion of a community about…
Read more
cnn

Hundreds are urged to evacuate due to wildfire near Flagstaff, Arizona, as thousands more are told to prepare to leave

By Elizabeth Wolfe & Others   06/13/22  
The Pipeline Fire was first reported by a fire lookout at around 10:15 a.m. Sunday and has grown to 4,500 acres, according to InciWeb, a US clearinghouse for wildfire information. Burning slightly west of Schultz…
Read more

A ‘Perfect Recipe for Extreme Wildfire’: New Mexico’s Record-Breaking, Early Fire Season

By Tim Wallace and Nadja Popovich   06/01/22  
Fueled by abnormally dry, warm conditions and spread by strong winds, wildfires have burned more than 600,000 acres across New Mexico this spring — making it one of the worst fire years in the state’s…
Read more

Here Are the Wildfire Risks to Homes Across the Lower 48 States

By Christopher Flavelle and Nadja Popovich   05/16/22  
The nation’s wildfire risk is widespread, severe and accelerating quickly, according to new data that, for the first time, calculates the risk facing every property in the contiguous United States.
Read more

1 in 6 Americans live in areas with significant wildfire risk

By John Muyskens, Andrew Ba Tran, Naema Ahmed and Anna Phillips   05/16/22  
When a wildfire tore through drought-stricken towns near Boulder, Colo., late last year, it reminded Americans that fire risk is changing. It didn’t matter that it was winter. It didn’t matter that many of the…
Read more

How the future trees of New Mexico were almost destroyed by wildfires

By Elizabeth Miller   05/12/22  
Saving tree seedlings critical to restoring forests in the Southwest from the fires ripping through northern New Mexico took four trucks and three trailers — and two trips into a wildfire evacuation zone...
Read more

Oregon Adopts Strongest Worker Protections in U.S. Against Heat and Wildfire Smoke

05/12/22  
To protect against extreme heat, employers must as of June 15 afford workers paid heat breaks when temperatures surpass 80 degrees F and must provide access to shade and drinking water, among other measures. To…
Read more

Wildfire threatens ‘cultural genocide’ in New Mexico villages

By Andrew Hay   05/09/22  
Miguel Gandert does not know whether his family's 19th-century log home has been burned by a New Mexico wildfire, but he fears the blaze could destroy an Indo-Hispano mountain culture far older than the United…
Read more

‘Potentially historic’ wildfire event threatens New Mexico, Southwest

By Matthew Cappucci & Jason Samenow   05/07/22  
Critical-to-extreme wildfire conditions are about to take hold of the southwestern United States and parts of Colorado, leading into what could be a lengthy, multiday and memorable outbreak of wildfires and/or wildfire conditions. Warm to…
Read more

‘Burning Down a Way of Life’: Wildfire Rips Through a Hispanic Bastion

By Simon Romero   05/05/22  
“I left behind 25 goats, 50 rabbits, 10 chickens and two dogs,” said Mr. Martinez, 71, who escaped his home in the village of El Oro this week for an evacuee shelter. “I have no…
Read more

Smoke and sandstorm, seen from space

By Maggie Astor   05/04/22  
A time-lapse image of smoke from wildfires in New Mexico and dust from a storm in Colorado illustrates the scope of Western catastrophe. The video is mesmerizing: As three whitish-gray geysers gush eastward from the…
Read more

New Mexico governor urges Biden to declare wildfires a disaster to free funds

05/03/22  
New Mexico’s governor on Tuesday asked President Joe Biden to declare a disaster as firefighters scrambled to clear brush, build fire lines and spray water to keep the largest blaze burning in the US from…
Read more

Devouring the rainforest

By Terrence McCoy and Júlia Ledur   04/29/22  
Cattle ranching, responsible for the great majority of deforestation in the Amazon, is pushing the forest to the edge of what scientists warn could be a vast and irreversible dieback that claims much of the…
Read more

Massive wildfires helped fuel global forest losses in 2021

By John Muyskens, Naema Ahmed and Others   04/28/22  
Unprecedented wildfires raged across Russia in 2021, burning vast swaths of forest, sending smoke as far as the North Pole and unleashing astounding amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere...
Read more

A megafire raged for 3 months. No one’s on the hook for its emissions.

By Amanda Coletta , Chris Mooney & others   04/20/22  
Over nearly three months, it crossed a river, hopscotched containment lines and climbed sagebrush-covered hills, churning into the atmosphere an estimated 38 million tons of greenhouse gases — roughly a year’s worth of pollution from…
Read more

Fires, Then Floods: Risk of Deadly Climate Combination Rises

By Raymond Zhong   04/01/22  
Global warming is greatly increasing the risk that extreme wildfires in the American West are followed by heavy rainfall, a new study has found, highlighting the need for better preparations for hazards, like mudslides and…
Read more
AP

Wildfire near Smoky Mountains prompts mandatory evacuations

03/31/22  
Firefighters sought to get a handle Wednesday on a wildfire spreading near Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, amid mandatory evacuations as winds whipped up ahead of a line of strong storms forecast to…
Read more

It’s official: Larger, more frequent wildfires are here

By Lina Tran   03/30/22  
It’s nearly three months into 2022, and the country has already seen wildfires burning across Florida, Texas, and Colorado. Hundreds of thousands of acres have been scorched, in an unusual start to spring.
Read more

NCAR Fire forced evacuation of 8,000 homes in Boulder

By Nate Lynn   03/27/22  
About 8,000 homes were ordered to evacuate due to a fast-moving wildfire burning in an open space near the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder on Saturday afternoon.
Read more

Older Wildfire Smoke Plumes Can Affect Climate

By Emily Dooley   03/23/22  
Aerosols carried in wildfire smoke plumes that are hundreds of hours old can still affect climate, according to a study out of the University of California, Davis.
Read more

Recent Megafire Smoke Columns Have Reached the Stratosphere, Threatening Earth’s Ozone Shield

By Bob Berwyn   03/17/22  
Scientists researching how the recent spike in extreme wildfires affects the climate say that just a few weeks of smoke surging high into the stratosphere from one intense fire can wipe out years of progress…
Read more

Wildfires in Florida Panhandle prompt evacuations

By Alyssa Lukpat and Isabella Grullón Paz   03/05/22  
Three fast-moving wildfires in the Florida Panhandle have consumed more than 10,000 acres and forced the evacuation of more than 1,100 homes, the authorities said.
Read more

Risk of uncontrollable wildfires will rise and spread globally, UN warns

By Diana Leonard   02/23/22  
Uncontrollable wildfires are intensifying with the rise in greenhouse gas emissions, according to a sweeping global report released Wednesday by the United Nations Environment Program and nonprofit GRID-Arendal, who said communities are not prepared for…
Read more

As drought lingers, larger and more destructive wildfires pose new threats to water supply

By Hayley Smith   02/21/22  
Already diminished by drought and extreme heat, California’s water supply will face yet another peril as wildfires continue to incinerate ever larger areas of forested land, according to new research.
Read more