This year, Arizona’s fire season is off to a busy start.
According to data from the Interagency Fire Center, about 56,000 acres have been consumed by wildfires. This is the third-highest year, slightly surpassed by 2017, and 2018’s 58,000 acres.
The approximate number of acres burned year to date this year is dwarfed by other years when accounting for wildfires that were discovered in early June but continued to burn.
Uncontained fires in 2020 and 2021 surged the number of acres burned in those years to over 300,000 respectively. Showing the unpredictable and volatile nature of wildfires and how one or two can change the statistics.
Case in point, the Wallow fire in 2011 is Arizona’s largest on record.
The fire consumed over 538,000 acres of the White Mountains. Overlayed on the Phoenix metro, this fire would cover nearly all of the Valley east of Interstate 17.
This year’s largest fire so far is the Wildcat Fire, which was contained in early May, the fire ate up over 14,300 acres. A little more than half the size of Tempe.
Since the year 2000, about 10%, or 7.2 million acres of Arizona have been consumed by wildfires.
Only three seasons: 2011, 2020, and 2005 grew to be above 1% of the total acreage, rounding out the top five in 2002 and 2021. Those five seasons alone represent half of all acres burned in Arizona.
