Wildfires: State of the Risk

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Record-breaking wildfires across the Northern Hemisphere have been making headlines, so it may be surprising to learn that U.S. wildfire frequency and severity for 2023 are on track to be the lowest in the past two decades. In fact, while recent years have seen individual events that smashed historical records, the 24-year national trend has been downward. The improvements are likely due to investments in mitigation, but development in the wildland-urban interface -- the zone between unoccupied and developed land, where structures and human activity intermingle with vegetative fuels – will likely keep upward pressure on severity in those areas.

(As of November 27, 2023)