Wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

s across the

US state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

burned of land in at least 1,773 fires, fueled in part by a drought, hot temperatures, and thunderstorms producing

dry lightning A dry thunderstorm is a thunderstorm that produces thunder and lightning, but where all or most of its precipitation evaporates before reaching the ground. Dry lightning refers to lightning strikes occurring in this situation. Both are so common ...

. At one point in late June, over 20 active wildfires were burning across the state. The total acres burned between the start of the year and the end of June was 22% more than during the same period of the preceding season, which itself was the most active in nearly a decade. The spike in wildfires in Arizona during the summer was due to an ongoing

megadrought A megadrought is an exceptionally severe drought, lasting for many years and covering a wide area. Definition There is no exact definition of a megadrought. The term was first used by Connie Woodhouse and Jonathan Overpeck in their 1998 pap ...

that is occurring in the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

, as well as a

heat wave A heat wave or heatwave, sometimes described as extreme heat, is a period of abnormally hot weather generally considered to be at least ''five consecutive days''. A heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual climate in the area and ...

with many western cities hitting record-breaking temperatures.

Background

The Arizona wildfire season usually begins in May and lasts through mid-July, when the North American Monsoon provides the Southwestern U.S with heavy rainfall to slow down fire activity throughout the region. But in June 2021, the Telegraph Fire became the 6th largest wildfire in Arizona history. Wildfires in Arizona at the time were making headlines due to a ridge of

high pressure In science and engineering the study of high pressure examines its effects on materials and the design and construction of devices, such as a diamond anvil cell, which can create high pressure. ''High pressure'' usually means pressures of thousan ...

hovering over much of the southwest and severe drought also playing a major role in the Arizona wildfire season with more than 50% of the state being in ' Exceptional Drought'. The drought in the southwest was making the job of fighting wildland fires difficult because of water shortages in the region. At the time, Arizona was also seeing record-breaking temperatures with Phoenix hitting a high of 118 °F (47 °C) on June 17. Earlier on June 9, governor

Doug Ducey Douglas Anthony Ducey ( ; ; born April 9, 1964) is an American businessman and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician who served as the 23rd List of governors of Arizona, governor of Arizona from 2015 to 2023 and as State Treas ...

issued Declarations of Emergency in response to the Telegraph and Mescal fires. The declarations provided up to $400,000 (USD) for efforts of response to wildfires. From June 14 to June 20, dry thunderstorms rolled into Arizona and produced dry lighting which spawned a larger outbreak of wildfires throughout the state. The outbreak got so bad that at one point, five out of six national forests had to be closed to the public in late June. These national forests included the Coconino, Kaibab, Prescott,

Tonto Tonto is a fictional character; he is the Native Americans in the United States, Native American (either Tonto Apache, Comanche, or Potawatomi) Friendship, companion of the Lone Ranger, a popular American Western (genre), Western character crea ...

and Apache-Sitgreaves national forests. The only people who were allowed in the forests were firefighters and people who owned property in the forests.

List of wildfires

The following is a list of fires that burned more than 1,000 acres (400 ha), or produced significant structural damage or casualties.

Evacuations

Margo Fire: Dudleyville Flag Fire: Pine Lake Tussock Fire: Fort Misery and Horsethief Basin Spur Fire: Bagdad Telegraph Fire:

El Capitan El Capitan (; ) is a vertical Rock formations in the United States, rock formation in Yosemite National Park, on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The El Capitan Granite, granite monolith is about from base to summit alo ...

, Dripping Springs,

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, Top-of-the-World, Government Springs, Wind Spirit, Hagen Ranch, and Slash S Ranch Pinnacle Fire: Klondyke and Aravaipa Cornville Fire: Parts of Cornville (East of Page Springs Road) Backbone Fire:

Strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown Hybrid (biology), hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit ...

and

Pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

Rafael Fire: Areas around Sycamore Canyon Wyrick Fire: Antelope Valley and portions of Heber West Chev Fire: Woods Canyon Lake Walnut Fire: Residents near

Dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat wi ...

Tiger Fire: Horsethief Basin

References

External links

Arizona Interagency Wildfire Prevention – Wildfire News

Southwest Coordination Center (SWCC)

National Interagency Fire Center
{{Arizona wildfires 2021 heat waves 2021 in Arizona June 2021 in the United States Arizona, 2021 Wildfires in Arizona 2021 Arizona wildfires

Background

List of wildfires

Evacuations

See also

References

External links