Oregon’s 2026 wildfire season has burned a record 1.978 million acres, surpassing 2024’s mark with nearly two months of fire season left.
Source: Oregon sets modern wildfire acreage record; 2 months left | Wildfires | centraloregondaily.com
Of interest, there has not been much commentary blaming “climate change” this year. Perhaps because nationally, total acreage burned is well below average. However, CNN is blaming climate change. They report US fire season already outpacing average, with peak months still ahead but see next chart. Prof Cliff Mass says climate change is not a factor in this blaze: Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Smoke in the West Means Relief in the East. The Big Threat Comes Later this Week
Related: There is a social media meme about how the Spokane fire is the largest fire ever occurring in more than 43 US states. That number is totally meaningless. Almost all historical, large fires have occurred in about 7 large, dry, arid western US states – making comparisons to other states meaningless. Would tiny wet states like Vermont and New Hampshire have similar numbers of fires or acreage burned?
app.watchdog.org map on August 6, 2026:
As of August 3, 2026
The fire season in the PNW normally lasts another 4-8 weeks or so. We have no way of knowing if we will see many more fires or many less fires in the 1-2 months ahead.
A related question is:
What is the climate control knob you could have adjusted 5 years ago to prevent the regional fires in Washington and Oregon in 2026?
Note: The NIFC deleted all acreage burned data prior to 1982 so “trends” and past mega fires are now excluded from the modern record. https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/statistics/wildfires.
Before their deletion, this is what the record looked like.
Fires Not a Good Proxy For Climate Change in the Western States
… because most are caused by human activity or arson. There are vastly more people in the forest interface than in the past. There will be more fires just because of that.
- Spokane (2026, up to 1000 structures, arson) Detective: Spokane arson suspect admitted starting Old Trails Fire, 25 others | News | kxly.com
- Gann Fire (2026, Calaveras County, CA, started by saw cutting, arrest made) RAW: CA: GANN FIRE:MAN ADMITS STARTING UNINTENTIONALLY | National & World | kxly.com and Man accused of starting Gann Fire previously plead no contest to fire-related charge (2nd time this person had started a fire, having done so 8 years prior).
- Channel Islands fire (2026, started by person who fired a rescue flare) Map: California’s biggest wildfire of the year was started by rescue flares in national park – The Mercury News
- Pacific Palisades (2025, over 3,000 structures, arson)
- Eaton Fire (2025, over 9000 structures, SoCal Edison known faulty power lines that were supposed to have been de-energized) – Eaton Fire – Wikipedia and Investigators identify cause of deadly Eaton Fire in Altadena | KTLA
- Park Fire (California, 2024, 4th largest in state history, 700 structures, arson) Park Fire: Two years later, trial set for man accused of starting California’s 4th largest wildfire – East Bay Times
- Babb Fire (2020, destroyed 2 small cities in WA, power lines/trees/winds) How wind, trees and powerlines destroyed Malden, Pine City | krem.com
- Alameda Fire Oregon (2020, 2,400 homes, arson and other “human caused”) Almeda Drive Fire – Wildfire Today
- Camp Fire (2018, Paradise, CA, over 18,000 structures, PG&E had known failed line hangers before the fire, which failed in wind)
- Eagle Creek Fire (2017, Columbia Gorge, Oregon, arson, youth threw firecrackers into the forest. Teen who started Eagle Creek Fire making restitution payments on time, Hood River DA says and Apologies from teen who started Eagle Creek fire – Geos Institute)
- Oakland Hills Fire (1991, over 3,000 structures lost. Cause unknown. Day before there was a 5 acre fire that was thought to be extinguished but high winds rekindled embers a day later.)
The destructive fires that destroy entire cities and communities are almost all caused by human activity, and the most destructive were due to arson.
Yet the media has often focused on climate change as the cause. CNN digs in – August 8, 2026, amid widespread arson and human caused fires in the western US.
There is zero discussion on how to solve the human causation problem – and no amount of climate change knob fiddling will have a meaningful impact in reducing destructive fires caused by humans and arson.
