List of California wildfires

"California wildfire" redirects here. For the current fires in California, see 2024 California wildfires.

Santa Ana winds in California expand fires and spread smoke over hundreds of miles, as in this October 2007 satellite image
The Rim Fire consumed more than 250,000 acres (100,000 ha) of forest near Yosemite National Park, in 2013

This is a partial and incomplete list of California wildfires. California has dry, windy, and often hot weather conditions from spring through late autumn that can produce moderate to severe wildfires. Pre-1800, when the area was much more forested and the ecology much more resilient, 4.4-11.9 million acres (1.8-4.8 million hectares) of forest and shrubland burned annually.[1] California land area totals 99,813,760 or roughly 100 million acres, so since 2000, the area that burned annually has ranged between 90,000 acres, or 0.09%, and 1,590,000 acres, or 1.59% of the total land of California.[2] During the 2020 wildfire season alone, over 8,100 fires contributed to the burning of nearly 4.5 million acres of land.

Since the early 2010s, wildfires in California are growing more dangerous because of the accumulation of wood fuel in forests, higher population, and aging and often poorly maintained electricity transmission and distribution lines, particularly in areas serviced by Pacific Gas and Electric.[3][4][5] United States taxpayers pay about US$3 billion a year to fight wildfires, and big fires can lead to billions of dollars in property losses.[6] At times, these wildfires are fanned or made worse by strong, dry winds, known as Diablo winds when they occur in the northern part of the state and Santa Ana winds when they occur in the south. However, from a historical perspective, it has been estimated that prior to 1850, about 4.5 million acres (17,000 km2) burned yearly, in fires that lasted for months, with wildfire activity peaking roughly every 30 years, when up to 11.8 million acres (47,753 km3) of land burned.[7][8] The much larger wildfire seasons in the past can be attributed to the policy of Native Californians regularly setting controlled burns and allowing natural fires to run their course, which prevented devastating wildfires from overrunning the state.[7]

More than 350,000 people in California live in towns sited completely within zones deemed to be at very high risk of fire. In total, more than 2.7 million people live in "very high fire hazard severity zones", which also include areas at lesser risk.[9]

On lands under CAL FIRE's jurisdictional protection (i.e. not federal or local responsibility areas), the majority of wildfire ignitions since 1980 have been caused by humans. The four most common ignition sources for wildfires on CAL FIRE-protected lands are, in order: equipment use, powerlines, arson, and lightning.[10]

A 2023 study found that these wildfires are affecting the California ecosystem and disrupting the habitats.[11][12] It found that in the 2020 and 2021 fire seasons 58% of the area affected by wildfires occurred in those two seasons since 2012.[11][13] These two fires destroyed 30% of the habitat of 50 species as well as 100 species that had 10% of their habitats burn. 5-14% of the species' habitats burned at a "high severity."[14][15]

  1. ^ Stephens, Scott L.; Martin, Robert E.; Clinton, Nicholas E. (November 15, 2007). "Prehistoric fire area and emissions from California's forests, woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands". Forest Ecology and Management. 251 (3): 210. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2007.06.005. ISSN 0378-1127. Archived from the original on August 12, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2020. area burned annually in California varied from 1,814,614 to 4,838,293 ha (excluding the desert region in Southeastern California) during the prehistoric period. With the land area of California equaling 40,396,822 ha (CCDB, 2003), this results in 4.5–12.0% of the state's lands burning annually
  2. ^ "California Wildfire Emission Estimates | California Air Resources Board". ww2.arb.ca.gov. Archived from the original on August 30, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  3. ^ BORUNDA, ALEJANDRA; ELLIOTT, KENNEDY (November 15, 2018). "See how a warmer world primed California for large fires". National Geographic. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
  4. ^ "Twenty-first century California, USA, wildfires: fuel-dominated vs. wind-dominated fires". ResearchGate. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  5. ^ "Historical patterns of wildfire ignition sources in California ecosystems". ResearchGate. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  6. ^ "Wildfires are growing more costly". NBC News. May 14, 2014. Archived from the original on October 13, 2020. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  7. ^ a b Rogers, Paul (August 23, 2020). "California fires: State, feds agree to thin millions of acres of forests - New plan would last 20 years, reshaping California's landscape". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on September 13, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020. Before the Gold Rush in 1849, large parts of California burned every few decades. Lightning fires burned for months, and native tribes burned the land, clearing out dead vegetation. ... Stephens, the UC fire scientist, estimates that before the Gold Rush, roughly 4.5 million acres a year in California burned. By the 1950s and 1960s, that was down to about 250,000 acres a year.
  8. ^ Weil, Elizabeth (August 28, 2020). "They Know How to Prevent Megafires. Why Won't Anybody Listen?". ProPublica. Archived from the original on September 13, 2020. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  9. ^ Ryan Sabalow; Phillip Reese; Dale Kasler (April 11, 2019). "Destined to Burn: California races to predict which town could be next to burn". The Sacramento Bee. Archived from the original on November 17, 2019. Retrieved November 17, 2019 – via KRCR News.
  10. ^ Boxall, Bettina (January 5, 2020). "Human-caused ignitions spark California's worst wildfires but get little state focus". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 19, 2023. Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  11. ^ a b "California wildfires altering ecosystems, disrupting wildlife habitats: Study". ABC News. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  12. ^ Ayars, Jessalyn; Kramer, H. Anu; Jones, Gavin M. (November 28, 2023). "The 2020 to 2021 California megafires and their impacts on wildlife habitat". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 120 (48). doi:10.1073/pnas.2312909120. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 10691208. PMID 37983516.
  13. ^ Ayars, Jessalyn; Kramer, H. Anu; Jones, Gavin M. (November 28, 2023). "The 2020 to 2021 California megafires and their impacts on wildlife habitat". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 120 (48). doi:10.1073/pnas.2312909120. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 10691208. PMID 37983516.
  14. ^ "California wildfires altering ecosystems, disrupting wildlife habitats: Study". ABC News. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  15. ^ Ayars, Jessalyn; Kramer, H. Anu; Jones, Gavin M. (November 28, 2023). "The 2020 to 2021 California megafires and their impacts on wildlife habitat". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 120 (48). doi:10.1073/pnas.2312909120. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 10691208. PMID 37983516.