2020 worst Arizona fire season in decades

More nearly 980,000 acres charred statewide

PHOENIX, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Forestry officials say Arizona had one of its worst wildfire seasons in history this past year.

The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management says in 2020, the state saw 2,520 wildfires. Those blazes blackened more than 978,000 acres of state, federal, and tribal lands. Forestry officials say humans sparked 82% of those fires. By comparison, 1,869 wildfires charred more than 384,000 acres the in 2019.

However, 2020 was not the state's most destructive wildfire season. That title belongs to 2011 which say 1,988 fires burn more than one million acres.

Forestry officials say unseasonably high temperatures and a lack of rainfall produced bountiful dry vegetation to fuel blazes in the central part of the state and within the Sonoran Desert. They also say an increase in recreational traffic in fire-prone areas sparked more fires.