Last updated October 15, 2021
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Rhea Fire 2018

United States

The Rhea Fire in Dewey County, Oklahoma—which burned 286,196 acres in total—is the third major fire in three back-to-back years to tear through hundreds of thousands of acres in the Oklahoma Plains. These fires are three of the five worst fires on record in Oklahoma, going back to 1997. Unusually hot temperatures contributed to the extreme fire conditions that fueled each of them.

These record-breaking wildfires are consistent with the long-term increasing wildfire activity observed in the western US grasslands, an increase fueled in part by climate change trends in the Great Plains region.

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Rhea fire

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