WildfiresFire Science Critical for Combating Wildfires Out West

Published 23 December 2020

In 2020, wildfire activity in California and the Pacific Northwest has been extreme, with more than 45,700 wildfires raging across 8.3 million acres (as of October 15, 2020). This puts the 2020 Fire Year on pace for being the most extensive of the last decade, even outpacing the fires of 2017 and 2018. Science can help in preparing for and coping with wildfires, thus helping save lives, property and money.

It has been a harrowing equation out West over the past few months:

Abundant fuel + hot temperatures + winds = large, fast-moving wildfires.

At one point San Francisco was bathed in an eerie orange glow that evoked comparisons to post-apocalyptic times. The Beachie Creek Fire in Oregon spread massively over a single night, from 500 acres to over 159,000 acres due to a windstorm with wind gusts as high as 50 miles per hour. People living in Portland, Oregon, were immersed in dense smoke with record poor air quality that on some days was listed as the worst air quality on Earth.

In 2020, wildfire activity in California and the Pacific Northwest has been extreme, with more than 45,700 wildfires raging across 8.3 million acres (as of October 15, 2020). This puts the 2020 Fire Year on pace for being the most extensive of the last decade, even outpacing the fires of 2017 and 2018.

What does this all mean? Fires are a new year-round reality across much of the U.S. We know it’s not a question of “if” more fires will burn, but rather what we can do to be better prepared to manage them – including understanding the factors that influence where, when, and how fires burn, and what the consequences of fires are for humans and ecosystems. Science can provide these answers and, in the process, can also save lives, property and money.

A Hotter, Drier United States
“People accidentally or intentionally starting fires, warmer temperatures, dry and wet spells, and accumulation of fuels are some factors that have led to longer wildfire seasons, increases in the number of large and long-duration fires, and more severe effects from the wildfires,” said Paul Steblein, USGS fire science coordinator. “Such conditions – along with the wildfires that accompany them – are likely to increase in the future.”

Yet Steblein is optimistic about our ability to better manage wildfires of the future, in part because of the large cadre of federal, university and other fire researchers committed to science that not only supports the immediate needs of managers during a wildfire, but also will help managers determine the very best ways to manage lands to lessen wildfire risks.