2020 Ranks In The Top Five Of Acres Burned

If you were to rank this year, in terms of acreage burned by wildfires nationwide, where would it sit?

"So far in 2020 we've gotten above 9.5 million acres. And currently looking at the modern statistics this ranks # 4," according to USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey. "So if you go back to the previous modern years that were higher: at 2015 at 10.1 million acres just over 10 million acres in 2017 and then back in 2006 we saw about 9.9 million acres."

While 2020 is not quite over, is it possible the country will surpass any of those previous totals?

"It's unlikely we'd see another half million acres burning," Rippey answered "Right now we're kind of restricted to the remaining fires in southern California hopefully things will stay under control so probably will not reach the ten million acre mark in 2020 but certainly a year for the ages. Especially considering the lack of contribution from Alaska to the overall total this year."

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