US National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Update for August 8, 2022: 2 New Wildfires Reported

The US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported on Monday (8-8-22) that the total number of large wildfires and complexes currently burning in the US has grown to 69, with more than 1.690,492 acres across 15 different states currently burning. Two large new wildfires have been reported within the past 24 hours.

Most of the wildfire activity remains located in the state of Alaska, where there are 27 wildfires currently burning. There are 5 wildfires burning in California, Idaho, and Texas. There are 3 wildfires burning in Arizona and Washington. There are 2 wildfires burning Wyoming, and 1 wildfire in Arkansas, Georgia, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

As of today, only 5 of the 69 wildfires have been partially contained. There are now 11,500 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:

• From 1/1/22 through 8/8/22, 40,412 wildfires have been reported and they have burned 5,847,353 acres.
• From 1/1/21 through 8/8/21, 39,267 wildfires had been reported and they had burned 3,540,703 acres.
• The NIFC notes that the 10-year average (2012–2021) for the same time period was 35,699 wildfires which had consumed 3,955,659 acres.

NIFC meteorologists continue to predict hot, humid but dry, and windy conditions for the next 7 days. There is the possibility of isolated thunderstorms every day during for the week in the 15 different impacted states.