Last updated October 15, 2021
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Western Wildfire Season 2017

Western, US

Climate change is increasing wildfire risk in the American West through higher temperatures, reduced snow pack, increased drought risk, and earlier onset of springtime.[1]

Record hot and unseasonal temperatures dominated the start of 2017's western wildfire season. Record heat in February fueled worsening drought conditions in the Great Plains, contributing to extreme fire conditions in early March that precipitated major blazes in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Texas. One of the fires was Kansas's largest single blaze in recorded history, beating the previous record set in March 2016.

In June, the first of two major back to back heat waves settled over the Western US, drying out lighter vegetation that sprouted after an especially wet winter in states such as California. The second heat wave hit in early July, fueling many major blazes in several western states, including California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Montana, and North and South Dakota.  

According to the US National Academy of Sciences, over the past 30 years, there has been a fourfold increase in the number of large and long-duration forest fires in the American West.[2] The length of the fire season has expanded by 2.5 months, and the size of wildfires has increased severalfold.[2][3] More than half of states in the Western US have experienced their largest wildfire on record since 2000.[3]

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western wildfire season