US Wildfires To Date In 2026 Already More Than Double The 10-Year Average: 15,000 Starts, 1.5 Million Acres Burned

As the Western United States limps away from one of the warmest and driest winters on record, wildfires have burned over 127 percent more acreage so far in 2026 than the 10-year average, potentially setting the stage for a long, fiery summer.

Updated data from the National Interagency Fire Center on the number of ignitions and total acres burned through March 27 shows the country has experienced over 15,000 starts that have consumed more than 1.5 million acres so far this year. The 10-year averages through March 27 are about 9,195 starts and 664,792 acres burned.While 2024 and 2017 both saw higher total acreage burned to this point, 2026 ranked first for the number of ignitions by late March in any year of the past decade, with 587 more fires than the next-highest year.

More fires in what has historically been a wetter part of the year “is becoming less a trend, more a pattern and normality,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, co-founder and executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology. “It is a clear signal of ongoing climate change.”

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Much of the contiguous U.S. is experiencing a drought, according to United States Department of Agriculture data. Some of the largest fires are raging in the Great Plains, particularly Nebraska, where over 180,000 acres are burning, federal data indicates. The Nebraska fires have already set a record for acreage burned in that state. “It’s normal that we’d have range fires” this time of year, said Andy Norman, a retired fuels specialist with the Forest Service, “but not the scope, the size and intensity of them,” as has occurred in 2026.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27032026/us-wildfires-already-setting-records-this-year/