While climate scientists warn that wildfire season is getting longer, the blazes remain particularly active during certain months and vary by region.
Wildfire season begins in Southern states such as Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. Most occur in late winter and early spring, while vegetation is still dead or dormant, but those states’ seasons are less concentrated than in other areas of the country.
Wildfires pick up in Midwestern and Eastern states later in the spring, when grasses and other vegetation grow quickly as snow melts and dry out soon afterward. States such as Vermont see a lot of debris burning during spring months, increasing the possibility of wildfires.
Western wildfires spark most often when plants are driest and conditions are hottest – usually in summer and early fall.
Learn more about wildfires in our recent investigation.
Scott Pham is the news applications developer for Reveal. Previously, he was the digital editor for the NBC Bay Area Investigative Team. Before that, he worked at numerous places in the public radio system, reporting for broadcast and innovating online. At KBIA public radio in Columbia, Missouri, he led the station to a national Murrow Award for best website and founded the Missouri Drone Journalism Program, which produced some of the very first drone-enabled journalism in the U.S. Pham is based in Reveal’s Emeryville, California, office.
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Eric Sagara is a senior data reporter for Reveal. He joined Reveal following a news applications fellowship at ProPublica, where he worked on projects about pharmaceutical payments to doctors, deadly force in police agencies and the trail of guns in the United States. Prior to that, he was a reporter on The Newark Star-Ledger's data team. Sagara is originally from Arizona, where he reported on business, education, crime, wildfires and government. He is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.
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