List of California wildfires

About 75% of California's 20 most destructive wildfires—measured in terms of structures burned—have occurred since 2015.[1]
Santa Ana winds in California expand fires and spread smoke over hundreds of miles, as in this October 2007 satellite image.
The Rim Fire consumed more than 250,000 acres (100,000 ha) of forest near Yosemite National Park, in 2013.

This is a partial and incomplete list of wildfires in the US state of California. California has dry, windy, and often hot weather conditions from spring through late autumn that can produce moderate to severe wildfires. Pre-1800, when the area was much more forested and the ecology much more resilient, 4.4-11.9 million acres (1.8-4.8 million hectares) of forest and shrubland burned annually.[2] California land area totals 99,813,760 or roughly 100 million acres, so since 2000, the area that burned annually has ranged between 90,000 acres, or 0.09%, and 1,590,000 acres, or 1.59% of the total land of California.[3] During the 2020 wildfire season alone, over 8,100 fires contributed to the burning of nearly 4.5 million acres of land.

  1. ^ "Top 20 Most Destructive California Wildfires" (PDF). from fire.ca.gov. CalFire. January 2025. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 22, 2025. (Supplements December 2024 version with early 2025 data)
  2. ^ Stephens, Scott L.; Martin, Robert E.; Clinton, Nicholas E. (November 15, 2007). "Prehistoric fire area and emissions from California's forests, woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands". Forest Ecology and Management. 251 (3): 210. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2007.06.005. ISSN 0378-1127. Archived from the original on August 12, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2020. area burned annually in California varied from 1,814,614 to 4,838,293 ha (excluding the desert region in Southeastern California) during the prehistoric period. With the land area of California equaling 40,396,822 ha (CCDB, 2003), this results in 4.5–12.0% of the state's lands burning annually
  3. ^ "California Wildfire Emission Estimates | California Air Resources Board". ww2.arb.ca.gov. Archived from the original on August 30, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.

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