US National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Update for August 1, 2022: 4 New Wildfires Reported

The US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported on Monday (8-1-22) that the total number of large wildfires and complexes currently burning in the US has been reduced to 55, with more than 1,580,475 acres across 13 different states currently burning. Four large new wildfires have been reported within the past 24 hours.

Most of the wildfire activity remains located in the state of Alaska, but that activity has been greatly reduced over the past week. In Alaska there are 27 wildfires currently burning. There are 4 wildfires are burning in Arizona, California, and Montana. There are 2 wildfires burning in Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. There are 2 wildfires burning New Mexico, Oregon, and Texas. And 1 each in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming.

The NIFC is reporting that as of today, only 3 of the 55 wildfires have been partially contained. There are now 8,500 wildland firefighters and support personnel assigned to these incidents.

The current number of wildfires continues to well outpace 2021, which until now held the record high level, and is more than double the 10-year average. The NIFC offers this simple comparison as an example:

• Between 1/1/22 and 8/1/22, 39,226 wildfires have been reported and they have burned 5,712,9255 acres.
• Between 1/1/21 and 7/25/21, 37,803 wildfires had been reported and they had burned 3,014,811 acres.
• The NIFC notes that the 10-year average (2012–2021) for the same time period was 34,111 wildfires that had consumed 3,595,801 acres.

The NIFC is reporting “extreme” fire behavior in the Moose Fire in Idaho and the Carter Canyon Fire in Nebraska. Residents near large fires in California, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Wyoming remain evacuated as of this morning.

NIFC meteorologists continue to predict dry and windy conditions, and the possibility of isolated thunderstorms exists for the week in the 13 different impacted states.