PORTLAND, Ore. — Wildfires appear to be scorching much of California this summer, but is 2018 the worst year for wildfires in the state's recent history?
KGW's Verify team looked into those claims.
More than 900,000 acres have burned as of Aug. 14 and smoke from various wildfires has spread 3,000 miles all the way to New York.
The Mendocino Complex Wildfire (which is made up of the River Fire and the Ranch Fire) has so far burned more than 349,000 acres and cost $69 million to battle. It quickly became the state's worst wildfire on record.
We obtained records from the National Interagency Fire Center that go back to 2002. Wildfires burned more than 1 million acres of land in California in 2007, 2008 and 2017.
Just under 900,000 acres burned in 2012 and 2015.
And though current numbers show 2018 is not the state's worst year on record for wildfires, the peak of the fire season doesn't even occur until September and October, which has officials on edge.
