Utah releases fire outlook up to December, number of fires this year up from last two years
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Utah Department of Natural Resources released its wildfire outlook up to December today, and it also released its outlook for the month of September.
Utah DNR said much of the northwestern parts of Utah, northern Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming are expecting “above normal fire potential” for this month.
According to the DNR’s Utah Fire Info page, the Great Salt Lake Desert is under “extreme” risk.
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“When conditions are ‘extreme,’ all fires are potentially serious because fires start quickly, spread furiously, and burn intensely. It is often too dangerous for firefighters to engage with direct attack suppression tactics,” the DNR said on the Utah Fire Info website.
The rest of the state, aside from the mountains of Central and Southern Utah, is rated high or very high.
From October to December, the state will still see “normal” conditions, according to the DNR.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has kept a running average on fires and their impacts to the greater Utah landscape.
“Utah experiences 1,090 wildfires a year that burn approximately 137,276 acres per year,” according to the BLM site.
BLM said that number is a 10-year average, and Utah is nearing that average number, however, many of the fires have been contained to smaller areas.
During the 2024 fire season, 1,064 wildfires have been started with 581 being caused by humans and 404 being caused naturally.
Fires this season in the state of Utah have only burned a total of 53,736 acres, which is about half of the 10-year average acreage.
The number of wildfires in 2024 alone is up from the past two years, although data goes from May to September. That covers meteorological summer and the drier part of meteorological autumn.
“Typically, moisture increases as we move through the autumn season, which leads to a lower fire threat, but the threat does continue year-round,” ABC4 meteorologist Cedric Haynes said.
Utah’s main wildfire season runs from July 1 to Oct. 1, but that doesn’t mean fires can’t happen after the season ends.
ABC4 meteorologist Cedric Haynes contributed.
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