Area Burned By Wildfires Grows in the U.S.

The Texas panhandle is experiencing devastating wildfires. The complex duped the Smokehouse Creek fire grew to the largest ever recorded in the state Thursday, burning more than a million acres. This is not counting parts of the fire that have passed into Oklahoma. Firefighters are battling the blaze that despite light rain and snow yesterday was only 3 percent contained due to unusually high temperatures and winds. Two people are confirmed to have died due to the fire and numerous homes were damaged and destroyed. Gov. Greg Abbott will visit the area Friday.

Taking a long term look at the destruction caused by wildfires in the U.S., the acreage that burned increased over the past 40 years. While in the 1980s and 1990s, 10 to 16 million acres of burned area per 5-year period were the norm, this changed to upwards of 30 million in the 2000s and 2010s. Climate change is fueling wildfires due to higher temperatures and drier conditions, extending fire seasons like is now the case in Texas. Between 2003 and 2007 a high of almost 40 million acres burned in the country, according to numbers from the National Interagency Fire Center.

While the acreage destroyed by fires has been increasing, so has the cost of wildfire mitigation and the cost of fire damages. This is due to human settlements expanding further into forested regions, making it increasingly more expensive to protect and save homes from fires.