Acres Burned and Number of Fires in the United States (1983-2021)
This figure shows the number of acres burned and number of fires in the United States for each year 1983-2021. The number of acres burned is shown in red, while number of fires is shown in black. The graph depicts data points for each measure in each year, as well as a trendline for each over the entire period. Expected acreage burned increased from around 2 million acres in early 1980s to over 8 million acres in present. The number of fires are shown in black, with linear trendline which is fairly constant at around 63,000 annual fires over last ~40 years. Note increasing annual variability in acres burned in recent years, indicating that wildfire activity is more unpredictable. The data are from the National Interagency Fire Center. This visualization was made as part of NSF Growing Convergence Project 2019762.
