Unrelenting fires have ripped across the world from the Amazon to Indonesia to Australia. One of the worst hit regions in 2019 has been California. But what is the shocking extent of wildfires burning across the United States of America right now?
This year to date, there have been 146,621 fires according to MODIS fire alerts data.
The fire alerts are spread across the breadth of the country.
The worst hit areas are the south east and the west coast of the USA.
In total during the week to November 17, there were 433 MODIS alerts and 1,544 VIIRS alerts.
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So far the 2019 wildfire season has not been as active as 2018.
In late October, more than 200,000 people were evacuated from California as a state of emergency was declared.
The Kincade Fire in Sonoma County ignited on October 23, and has burned more than 76,000 acres and according to CalFire, more than 189 buildings have been destroyed, and 39 more were damaged.
The Getty Fire in Los Angeles broke out on October 28 leading to the National Weather Service issuing an Extreme Red Flag Warning for the area due to what could be the strongest Santa Ana winds ever seen, with wind gusts up to 80mph.
By comparison 2018, there were 58,083 wildfires, compared to 71,499 wildfires in 2017, according to the NIFC.
Last year there were around 8.8 million acres were burned in 2018, compared with 10 million in 2017.
The largest fires of 2018 included the Mendocino Complex Fire, the Carr Fire, the Camp Fire, and, the Hill and Woolsey Fires.