Fires approaching record nationwide

Flames from the Pine Fire burn in the back of
trees on July 18, 2015, in Wrightwood, Calif. (Photo: David Pardo, AP)

Wildfires have burned a phenomenal 5.5 million acres across the U.S. so far this year, an area equal to the size of New Jersey.

This is the second-highest total in at least the past 25 years, according to data from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. Only 2011, which saw 5.8 million acres charred as of July 23 of that year, had more. On average, at this point in the year, 3.5 million acres would have burned.

As of Thursday afternoon, 18 wildfires were burning in seven states, mostly in the West. This includes one in California's wine country that has forced numerous evacuations and is being fought by hundreds of firefighters, CALFIRE, the state's firefighting agency, reported. Another one is charring Glacier National Park in Montana.

Summertime heat and ongoing drought conditions have left vegetation starved of moisture throughout the West, making it more susceptible to catching fire and starting a massive blaze, AccuWeather reports.

Alaska has seen the worst of the fires: A large percentage of the acres burned — 4.7 million acres, or 85% of the total — have been in Alaska.

"Alaska has had an unusually active year based on low snow packs over the winter, and unusually hot, dry weather in May and June into July," fire center spokesman Randall Eardley said.

Indeed, Alaska has had a freakishly warm year, the state's second-warmest ever recorded, the National Centers for Environmental Information reported earlier this month. In June alone, wildfires charred nearly 2 million acres.

The El Niño climate pattern (warmer-than-average ocean water in the Pacific) is one of the driving factors in the furious wildfire season, especially in Alaska, said Wally Covington, a forest ecologist at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

Overall, wildfires in Alaska appear to be worsening. Records on Alaska wildfires date all the way back to the late 1930s and show that three of the worst fire seasons have come in the last 12 years, including 2004, when more than 10,000 square miles — about 6.5 million acres, or the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined — went up in flames, the Associated Press said.

In California, 12 of the state's 20 biggest fires on record have occurred since 2000, CAL FIRE said. Records there go back to 1932.

Covington said that there's been a clear link between man-made climate change and the increase in Western wildfires. "As air temperatures go up, and the fuels dry out faster, fire behavior increases. It's a double whammy," he said.

California's fire season also got off to an early start this year. The Golden State's fire season usually begins in late summer and goes into the fall, but several fires were reported even in the winter months, according to CAL FIRE. There have been more than 3,600 fires in California so far this year, almost 1,300 more than usual.

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