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September 17, 2024 - Today, 56 large active wildfires are being managed with full suppression strategies nationwide. Current fires have 
burned 2,055,420 acres. 26,067 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to incidents, including 25 complex and 2 type 1 incident management teams, 587 crews, 1,500 engines, and 143 helicopters.
So far in 2024, 37,133 fires have burned 7,303,867 acres nationally in 2024. This compares to the 10-year average for this date of 44,515 fires and 5,802,917 acres.
The military soldiers from the 14th Brigade Engineer Battalion and the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment based out of Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM) have been demobilized and will return to their base today. The wildland fire community extends a big thank you to all the personnel who helped with the wildfires in Idaho. To learn more about military mobilizations, visit the military support page.
Note: Given the very high tempo and scale of national fire activity over the past few months, there have been delays in reconciling actual acreage burned with entries into the reporting systems, especially from areas with large fires and dynamic fire activity. Adjustments are occurring as the accuracy of fire locations, mapping, and final fire reporting are reconciled.
Widespread showers and isolated thunderstorms will develop in much of the western and northern Great Basin today, with wetting rain across much of northern Nevada into central Idaho. Strong southerly winds of 20-35 mph with gusts 35-50 mph are likely from the Lower Colorado River Valley and Utah into much of the central High Plains. Relative humidity will be lowest in the Lower Colorado Valley, with higher humidity in much of Arizona, New Mexico, and West Slope where scattered showers and thunderstorms will develop. In the East, a low off the Southeast coast will move closer to the coast, possibly moving onshore in North Carolina, with strong easterly winds and heavy rain likely for the eastern Carolinas and Virginia. Well above normal temperatures and dry conditions will continue for much of the Midwest, west slopes of the Appalachians, and Northeast. Downsloping easterly winds of 10-15 mph will continue in the Upper Ohio Valley and west slopes of the Appalachians, with minimum relative humidity as low as 10% creating locally elevated conditions. Scattered showers and thunderstorms are likely to develop in portions of the Lower Mississippi valley, as well.
| Number of new large fires or emergency response * New fires are identified with an asterisk |
0 | States currently reporting large fires: |
| Total number of active large fires Total does not include individual fires within complexes. |
56 | |
| Acres from active fires | 2,055,420 | |
| Fires contained | 4 |
Year-to-date statistics
| 2024 (1/1/24-9/17/24) | Fires: 36,920 | Acres: 7,301,739 |
| 2023 (1/1/23-9/17/23) | Fires: 42,689 | Acres: 2,193,130 |
| 2022 (1/1/22-9/17/22) | Fires: 0 | Acres: 6,793,291 |
| 2021 (1/1/21-9/17/21) | Fires: 44,968 | Acres: 5,587,152 |
| 2020 (1/1/20-9/17/20) | Fires: 42,809 | Acres: 7,015,956 |
| 2019 (1/1/19-9/17/19) | Fires: 37,506 | Acres: 4,348,513 |
| 2018 (1/1/18-9/17/18) | Fires: 48,077 | Acres: 7,267,143 |
| 2017 (1/1/17-9/17/17) | Fires: 49,669 | Acres: 8,491,446 |
| 2016 (1/1/16-9/17/16) | Fires: 43,429 | Acres: 4,783,600 |
| 2015 (1/1/15-9/17/15) | Fires: 46,474 | Acres: 8,821,040 |
| 2014 (1/1/14-9/17/14) | Fires: 39,767 | Acres: 2,946,832 |
10-year average Year-to-Date
| 2014-2023 | Fires: 44,387 | Acres: 5,794,899 |
Source: NIFC
