2020 California Wildfires (Blog Update #17)

In what was a record-setting year of wildfires in California, 9,639 fires burned 4,397,809 acres. That number is 4% of the state's roughly 100 million acres of land,

The fires destroyed over 10,000 structures and cost over $12.079 billion in damages. It cost just over $2 billion to control and put out the fires. The fires are being linked in part to over a century of poor forest management as well as increased warming due to climate change.

September 10 satellite image of the wildfires burning in California and Oregon.

On August 19, 2020, California reported the state was battling 367 known fires. Most of these were started from intense thunderstorms the region had seen a few days earlier.

The Bobcat Fire burning in the San Gabriel mountains near Monrovia.

In September, a record-breaking heat wave and katabatic winds fueled fire growth across the state. In November, the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) reported that around 3,400 firefighters plus personnel were fighting the wildfires in the United States.

Five of the twenty largest wildfires in California history were part of the 2020 wildfire season. Courtesy: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

Overall 31 died from the California wildfires and 37 people suffered non-fatal injuries.