Published: · Reviewed by Ertuğrul Öz, Certified Fire Chief & Training Specialist
By any measure, 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most destructive wildfire seasons the United States has ever recorded. As of this week, wildfires have scorched more than 5.1 million acres nationwide — a total that already exceeds every acre burned across all of 2025, and it isn't close to the traditional end of fire season. On Tuesday alone, more than 27,400 firefighters were battling roughly 100 uncontained large fires, and four new large blazes broke out in a single day.
In this article:
How 2026 Compares to Recent Fire Seasons
The 2026 season didn't sneak up on anyone — it was running ahead of pace from the start. By mid-May, the U.S. had already logged 25,560 fires and 1.88 million acres burned, well above the 10-year average of 1.05 million acres for that point in the year. By late May, the gap had widened further: roughly 2.3 million acres burned across 29,023 fires, about 1.23 million acres more than the same point in 2025. A warmer-than-normal winter, ranked among the warmest on record across much of the West, set the stage before the season even began.
| Year | Total acres burned (full season) |
|---|---|
| 2024 | ~9.0 million acres |
| 2025 | 5,039,145 acres (72,068 fires) |
| 2026 (as of early August) | 5.1+ million acres — already ahead of all of 2025 |
The comparison that matters most: 2025's entire fire season, start to finish, burned about 5.04 million acres. 2026 passed that mark in early August — with peak fire season in parts of the West still ahead. If the current pace holds, 2026 could approach or exceed 2024's roughly 9-million-acre total, which remains the benchmark for how bad a modern U.S. fire season can get.
The Biggest Fires Burning Right Now
Spokane's Spokane Complex Fire has dominated headlines this week because of its urban impact — more than 700 structures destroyed and 65,000 people evacuated — but several fires burning elsewhere in the West are considerably larger by acreage, even without the same population exposure:
| Fire | Location | Acres | Contained |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coleman Creek Fire | Vale, Oregon | 264,839 | 18% |
| Second Flat Fire | Burns, Oregon | 105,432 | 40% |
| Bald Mountain Fire | Oregon | 78,239 | 37% |
| Shingle Fire | Fossil, Oregon | 67,416 | 10% |
| Tonasket Fire | Tonasket, Washington | 73,794 | 0% |
| Spokane Complex Fire | Spokane, Washington | 8,026 | 0% |
Every one of these figures can shift by tomorrow — this table is a snapshot, not a live feed. The pattern it shows, though, is real: Oregon and Washington together account for the majority of the country's largest active fires right now, and the Pacific Northwest overall is having its worst fire season in more than 30 years, with well over a million acres burned regionally even before the Spokane fires started.
Why This Season Got So Bad
Fire officials point to a stack of compounding factors rather than any single cause. A warmer-than-normal winter reduced snowpack across much of the West, leaving less moisture in the soil and vegetation heading into summer. That dry start combined with a summer of repeated heat waves and, in the Pacific Northwest specifically, a series of unusually strong wind events — including the Particularly Dangerous Situation Red Flag Warning that preceded the Spokane fires — created conditions where new ignitions grew explosively rather than staying small and controllable.
Roughly 85% of U.S. wildfires are human-caused, according to federal fire officials, which means prevention — extinguishing campfires completely, checking trailer chains for sparks, following local burn restrictions — remains one of the few levers available to reduce ignitions, even though it does nothing to change the underlying weather and fuel conditions driving this season's severity.
Drones Are Grounding Firefighting Aircraft
Unauthorized drones have flown into restricted airspace over the Spokane fires at least 26 times, according to fire officials, forcing crews to ground critical aerial firefighting resources each time it happens. A drone colliding with a firefighting aircraft can be catastrophic — and every grounding delays water and retardant drops on active fire lines. If you fly a drone recreationally, check for temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) before flying anywhere near an active wildfire, no matter how far away the smoke looks.
This isn't a Spokane-specific problem — it recurs at major fires nationwide almost every season, and it's entirely preventable. The FAA and local fire agencies can and do pursue charges against operators who fly drones into active firefighting airspace, since it directly endangers pilots and can measurably slow the response to a fire threatening lives and property.
How to Check Fire Risk Near You
- ✓InciWeb (inciweb.wildfire.gov) — the federal government's interactive map of active wildfires, prescribed fires, and Red Flag Warnings nationwide.
- ✓National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC.gov) — daily national fire statistics, maps, and the Incident Management Situation Report used by federal dispatchers.
- ✓Your state's forestry or emergency management department — most states run their own real-time fire and evacuation dashboards more current than national aggregators.
- ✓AirNow.gov — current air quality and smoke impact, useful even far from an active fire perimeter.
- ✓Learn your local evacuation levels now, before a fire threatens your area — see our breakdown of what Level 1, 2, and 3 evacuation orders actually mean.
We'll keep updating our coverage as individual fires develop, including the ongoing Spokane Complex Fire and the Autumn Lane Fire, currently the nation's top-priority wildfire response. For the national picture, NIFC's daily situation report remains the single most authoritative source.
Comments 0
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!
Leave a Comment