Kayli Yardley with the DNR provided an update this week on the 2021 wildfire season. Last week there were 32 new wildfires in Utah. As of Wednesday, there have been 881 total wildfires in Utah’s 2021 season. That’s a total of 60,369 acres burned. Of this season’s wildfires, 470 were human caused which is over half at 53 percent. There has been at least 1 ignition every day since May 17th. This season’s numbers are lower than this time of year in 2020 when there were a reported 1,003 wildfires, 753 of which were human caused. In 2019 there were far less with 588 wildfires by this time, 382 of those human caused. Smoke from west coast fires is projected to continue to blanket across Utah until some moisture moves through, possibly Sunday or Monday.
