As the American West is reeling from one of the warmest and driest winters on record, wildfires have burned 127 percent so far in 2026 than the 10-year average, setting the stage for long, scorching summers.
Updated data from the National Fire Service on the number of fires and acres burned through March 27 show the state has had more than 15,000 starts that have consumed more than 1.5 million acres so far this year. The 10-year total through March 27 is about 9,195 starts and 664,792 acres burned.
While 2024 and 2017 both saw the highest number of acreage burned to date, 2026 is set for the highest number of fires by the end of March of any year in the past decade, with 587 more fires than the next highest year.
More fires in what used to be a wet part of the year “are becoming less common and more common,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, co-founder and executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology. “It’s a clear sign of ongoing climate change.”
Climate change—driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels—is exacerbating the severe droughts that have gripped the West, where drier forests, dwindling snowpack and changes in hydrology can make for a more destructive and deadly fire season. The recent record-breaking heat wave that swept through the West would have been “impossible” without climate change, a team of scientists recently found.
Most of the United States is experiencing drought, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture. Some of the largest fires are burning in the Great Plains, particularly in Nebraska, where more than 180,000 acres are burning, state data show.
Nebraska fires have set a record for acreage burned in the state.
“It’s normal for us to have more fires” this time of year, said Andy Norman, a retired Forest Service fuels specialist, “but not the size, scope and intensity,” like what happened in 2026.
Ingalsbee warned that large and frequent blazes in March could overwhelm federal firefighting efforts over the summer — even as President Donald Trump has tried to pool firefighting resources from various federal agencies that manage wildfires.
“I get calls almost every day from state firefighters, and right now the feeling is one of uncertainty and anxiety, because nobody really knows what’s going to happen next, what they have to do, who they have to answer to,” Ingalsbee said. “This entire process of creating the US Wildland Fire Service (USWFS) has been a black box operation done in secret and in the office of the Secretary of the Interior.”
The Interior Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Despite the hot start to the wildfire season, and the confusion surrounding the creation of the new USWFS, Ingalsbee still agrees to implement changes such as isolating power lines (power lines are a common cause of wildfires), placing firefighters in cooler, wetter areas where their chances of having a fire are higher, and reducing the risk imposed by the state.
He said: “It’s a change in attitude that, as a society, we have to adapt to this era of survival that we have and wildfires caused by weather and climate.”
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Jake Bolster reports on Wyoming and the West for Inside Climate News. Previously, he worked as a freelancer, covering climate change, energy and the environment across the United States. He has a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University.
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