Western Wildfires Set Record
Here’s a fact that almost no one living in the west will be surprised to hear.
Rippey: “It appears that a modern US record has been set for wildfire acreage during the extraordinarily active western wildfire season of 2020. 10.27 million acres of vegetation burned across the 50 United States in 2020. This is also the first time we’ve seen more than 10 million acres burned in the lower 49 states.”
USDA meteorologist, Brad Rippey speaking on numbers released by the Interagency Fire Service.
Rippey says just 200 thousand acres were burned in Alaska.
2020 marked the 3rd time in modern history that wildfire burned more than 10 million acres. The other years were 2015 and 2017.
Colorado experienced record wildfires in 2020. The Pine Gulch fire at around 139,000 acres, was the first to break records for the largest fire in recorded state history last summer. Then the Cameron Peak fire topped the Pine Gulch blaze by an additional 65 thousand acres. Total burned for the state exceeded 665 thousand acres.
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A new program may help producers impacted by drought in recent years.
A new USDA disaster assistance program aims to help ag producers cover quality losses in their crops from disasters such as wildfire and drought. Applications are underway. This new program is for the 2018-19 crop year and producers must have seen a 5% crop quality loss.
