U.S. National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Update for July 18, 2022—6 New Wildfires Reported

The U.S. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported on Monday (7-18-22) that the total number of large wildfires and complexes currently burning in the U.S. has increased to 89, with more than 3,100,941 acres across 12 different states are now ablaze. Six large new wildfires have been reported within the past 24 hours.

Most of the activity remains located in the state of Alaska where 70 wildfires are burning. There are 3 wildfires burning in California and Nevada. There are 2 wildfires burning in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. And 1 each in Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming. The NIFC is reporting that as of today, only 3 of the 89 wildfires has been partially contained. There are now 6,600 wildland firefighters and support personnel assigned to these incidents.

The current number of wildfires continues to well exceed 2021’s then record levels and is more than double the 10-year average. The NIFC offers this simple comparison as an example:

• From 1/1/22 through 7/18/22, 37,070 wildfires have been reported and they have burned 5,357,050 acres.
• From 1/1/21 through 7/18/21, 34,941 wildfires had been reported and they had burned 2,509,231 acres.
• The NIFC notes that the 10-year average (2012–2021) for the same time period was 30,664 wildfires reports which had consumed 2,941,900 acres.

The NIFC continues to predict that that based on their recently updated long range weather forecasts, the number of wildfires will continue to grow exponentially as we make our way through the typically hottest and driest period of the year.