2020 wildfires in California and west: Everything we know and how to help - CNET

An unprecedented fire season is wreaking havoc across the Western US, with nearly 100 major wildfires tearing across multiple states and air quality plummeting.

Oregon fires have burned more than 1 million acres, said the state's governor, Kate Brown. .

The 2020 fire season has been record-breaking, in not only the total amount of acres burned at just over 3 million, but also 6 of the top 20 largest wildfires in California history have occurred this year.

California's wildfires, driven by extreme blazes in August and September, have already burned more acres than any year on record.

But in a sign of things to come, the fire season is yet to peak, and more of Washington state burned in a 24-hour period last week week than in 12 of the last 18 fire seasons.

This has already been the second worst fire season in state history.

Some of the wildfires currently blazing across California are the result of accidental ignition. .

The risk of the wildfires burning across western US was well-known to scientists and, regardless of the origins, fires are fueled by a dizzying number of factors.

Environmental factors contributed significantly to the unprecedented fire season down under and they are playing out again in the US -- partially driven by the negative effects of climate change.

The link between fires and climate change has become a political football, but experts agree climate change explains the unprecedented nature of the current crisis. .

According to data from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program, on average, there are more wildfires, and they are burning more land each year.

"The debate is over around climate change," California Gov.

"Just come to the state of California.

The impacts of climate change simply cannot be denied.@NBCNightlyNews pic.twitter.com/gohbZ67Fyb.

Fires are burning across the western US, but the greatest conflagrations are across California and Oregon. .

More than 3.5 million acres have burned in California, with over 2,500 more fires than at the same point in 2019.

One of the largest fires during the Australian season, the Gospers mountain megafire, burned through around 2.2 million acres.

Washington has also experienced significant fires, with almost 350,000 acres burned in a 24-hour period in early September.

In California, the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CalFire, heads up the wildland firefighting effort, but actually beating back the flames on the ground is a massive collaboration that also involves local, county and federal resources

Teams of National Forest Service and other agencies' "hotshot" teams travel from as far as New Mexico to fight fires on the ground. 

Many conservation camps have been sidelined in the wildfire fight during this record-breaking season due to outbreaks of the coronavirus