A new heat wave will bring scorching temperatures once again as several fires continue to grow in the West in what is already a deadly fire season. The Babylon Fire burning in Utah has now covered 100,000 acres, and the Aspen Acres Fire in Colorado is approaching that size.
This follows a historically warm winter turning into a historically warm first half of this year, making 2026 the second-warmest year in the country so far in 132 years of record.
USA TODAY analyzed decades of wildfire data compiled by federal agencies. The data included fires of at least 1,000 acres in the western United States and at least 500 acres in the eastern United States to see how conditions have changed.
Between 1984 and 2024, more than 16,000 major wildfires occurred. They burned 179 million acres.
This is larger than Texas or the 15 smallest states combined: Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, West Virginia, South Carolina, Maine, Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia.
And the amount of land burned is not evenly distributed over the years. By the early 2020s, average annual acres burned had nearly tripled compared to the 1990s.
The analysis shows that although summer remains the dominant season, the average area burned in winter, spring and autumn has all increased.
In December 2021, the Marshall Fire broke out, destroying communities in Colorado and leading to mass evacuations. The fire was the most destructive in the state, with more than 1,000 homes destroyed.
Most recently, the Morrill Fire broke out in Nebraska in March 2026 and quickly became the state’s largest fire, covering more than 640,000 acres.
“Climate is certainly not the only factor, as there has never been a wildfire without ignition, and there has never been a wildfire without fuel, but there is certainly a body of evidence that climate change is contributing to the increase in burned area,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, a professor and senior fellow at Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability.
A 2025 study found that, depending on the region, between one-third and up to 80% of the area burned in the western United States between 1992 and 2020 could be attributed to climate change.
Wildfire smoke is a major source of air pollution, slowing decades of progress in cleaning the air and even reversing it in some areas.
“About half of the smoke produced[between1997and2020]can be linked to climate change, which is a significant number,” said Loretta Mickley, an atmospheric chemist at Harvard University and co-author of the study. “If we focus on the more recent years 2010 to 2020, that number increases.”
Mikley added that the hardest-hit states are Washington, Oregon and California. These locations not only have large forests that generate a lot of smoke, but are also affected by reduced winter snowfall.
Not all fires are bad. Fires help maintain forest diversity and control pest populations. However, historic fire suppression since the 20th century has led to denser forests and potentially increased fire size and intensity.
Fires are sensitive to weather conditions, so wet or dry years can change fire seasons.
Colorado and Utah may see some relief from above-average precipitation, while the Pacific Northwest could see dry, hot conditions for the next few months, according to the latest forecast from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.
“There’s a lot of disruption to the weather every year, but when you look at the overall trends, the big picture is that fires have been on the rise for decades,” Mikley said.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Contributor: Mitchell Thorson
