CASPER, Wyo — 174,624 acres burned in 5 Rocky Mountain states in 2019, according to the Rocky Mountain Area (RMA) Coordination Center’s Fire Information Coordinator Larry Helmerick.
As of June 25, 890 fires have burned 82,571 acres so far in 2020, according to an RMA release today. That is about 47% of last year’s total.
The following table shows, by cause, the number of fires and acres burned within each of the five states of the RMA in 2019. Both Federal and Non-federal fires and acres are included in state totals:
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| Human Fires | Acres | Lighting Fires | Acres | Total Fires | Total Acres | |
| Colorado | 6,537 | 20,984 | 781 | 32,760 | 7,318 | 53,744 |
| Kansas | 2,633 | 29,462 | 6 | 9 | 2,639 | 29,471 |
| Wyoming | 644 | 6,403 | 253 | 64,359 | 897 | 70,762 |
| Nebraska | 468 | 15,719 | 37 | 2,553 | 505 | 18,272 |
| South Dakota | 325 | 2,120 | 71 | 255 | 396 | 2,375 |
| *Total | 10,607 | 74,688 | 1,148 | 99,936 | 11,755 | 174,624 |
*As reported to the Rocky Mountain Coordination Center
According to RMA, there have been five years since 200 when over a million acres have burned: 2000, 2002, 2006, 2012 and 2018. In the past 20 years, the year with the most acreage consumed by fire was 2012, when 1,966,668 acres burned.
