Fires Have Burned 4.5 Million Acres So Far in 2024, Blanketing Much of North America in Smoke

Devastating wildfires are breaking out across North America on a daily basis, with smoke and ash spreading over large swaths of the continent from Reno to Toronto and New York. Fast-moving blazes have destroyed homes and charred through thousands of acres of farms and forests. Some have become deadly.

So far this year, over 28,000 wildfires have burned more than 4.5 million acres in the United States, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. U.S. fire activity for 2024 is above the average for the last decade, agency data shows, and the resulting destruction has already amounted to more than what burned in all of 2023.

And with the expected peak of this year’s fire season still at least a month or more away, experts say that fires are burning with a level of intensity rarely seen at this point in the summer.

“Every dimension of this fire season looks increasingly problematic from here on out,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Wildfire seasons have typically begun in June or July and stretched until mid-fall. But as heat waves and other extreme weather events, worsened by climate change, pummel parts of the United States and Canada, fire seasons no longer seem typical.

“We could see continued fire through September and October, maybe even November,” Dr. Swain added. “We have months to go.”