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FEWER FIRES, BUT INCREASING LAND DEVASTATION IN CALIFORNIA
By Madison Bellah and Lindsey Shepard
Despite a general decline in fires per year since 1987, there has been an overall incline in the amount of acres affected. In this 32 year time span 8,772 fires occurred and 632,601 acres were affected on average every year. Since 2014 the amount of acres burned has surpassed this average, creating an average just shy of 1,140,000 acres affected with a median of about 881,000. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, one reason for this increase in acreage destruction may be climate change.
NUMBER OF FIRES VERSUSÂ ACRES BURNED
The change from 1987 to 2018 depicts a subtle, yet obvious decline in overall fires. Most recently in 2018, there were just under 8,000 fires in the state, falling below the overall average. However, this decline in the amount of fires is accompanied by an increase of acres burned. Since 2009 there is an observable spike in acres burned each year.
A LOOK AT ACREAGE
The average amount of land burned per fire each year proves to be on an upward trend. The total number of fires is divided by acres burned. So although trends show a decrease in fires overtime, this depicts a steady increase in devastation.
MOST DEVASTATING FIRES IN CALIFORNIA'S RECENT HISTORY
The most devastating fires in California’s recorded history occurred in the last three years. The color scale represents transitions in time from the 1900s to 2021, while the size of the dot represents the destruction by that fire. All but two fires occurred in the last twenty years. The most devastation is prevalent in northern California overall, with fewer and older destructive fires in the southern part of that state.
Data sourced via Cal Fires
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