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In millions of acres: 3.1 (2014), 9.1 (2015), 4.8 (2016). The summary appears to be off by a million acres for 2015.

Just based on what we saw in Washington state (a significant percentage of the 2015 fires were up here) - the differences between the past few years might have as much or more to do with weather patterns than with temperature. It's hard to explain 2014 having so much less fire than 2015 if you only look at temps.

Here's the raw data, the article itself is behind a paywall. Choosing 2015 is kind of cherry-picking for the headline, since in 2014 there were only 3,5 million acres burned.

There's a fairly strong correlation between temperature and wildfires, so, this finding seems reasonable.

Every year there are devastating fires somewhere. But we have to look at the acreage and number of fires.

Last year was a light fire year. About 20% lighter than the 10 year average.

So far this year, we are about 15% behind the 10 year average in the number of wildland fires. And we are about 50% behind in the number of acres burned.

http://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/n...

Honestly, I still expect overall the world's climate will be getting wetter with global warming. There might be some regions that will get drier, but warmer oceans mean more evaporation. Warmer temperatures mean the air can hold more moisture resulting in higher humidity. Eventually that higher humidity has to result in more rainfall somewhere. But even if higher humidity doesn't result in rain, higher humidity does result in less aggressive fire behavior.
      I am not a climate scientist. I have a lot of people scoff at me when I say this, but they never explain how I am wrong. I can read the projections but the projections never seem to include the increased levels of ocean evaporation that I expect.

I wonder what record they're talking about? This year there has been 43,001 fires, fewer than any of the preceding 9 years, and 4,116,348 acres burned, fewer than any of the preceding 9 years except 2010 (numbers from http://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/nfn.htm ).

Before someone points to the "grand total" of 84 on that page, I'll point out that that figure must be incorrect - there are 145 listed under the "ST" ( State) agency, which was apparently left out of the total. I also missed a figure, the total actually appears to be 11+50+1+2+9+145+11=229.

Lightning naturally starts forest fires. That doesn't mean all forest fires are natural.

Unless you are referring to arson, that is a bad example. Forest fires are natural & have gotten so bad recently because there either hasn't been funding for needed controlled burns in the affected areas or misguided conservationists protesting / denying the need for the burns.

Some info on fire-dependent ecosystems in the US here:
http://www.nifc.gov/preved/comm_guide/wildfire/fire_6.html

Yep. I noticed this in the last month on a government website that maps NOTAMs.

It is quite common for there at the national scale map, to see a purple dot. This purple dot indicates that there is scheduled laser activity in the area. Frequently a laser light show. The NOTAMs advise altitude and range for which precaution is advised.

Then suddenly broad sections (that can only be assumed to be flightlines) stretching from Texas, down the Gulf of Mexico (just off the Mexican coast) to the Yucatan penensula and over to Florida. These NOTAMS frequently advised precaution of several thousand feet "below the aircraft" and "above the aircraft" and for a range that makes the "light show" type NOTAM seem laughable.

Up in Los Angeles, I have similar interests in what is going on. Here are some links...

Broad overview by the National forest Service

Excellent PDF of California, updated more than daily

Satellite imagery (Forest Service, very amazing)

More satellite imagery (NOAA, false colored with fires highlighted)

National Interagency Fire Centers wildfire reports

Interactive (zoomable) airspace restrictions map

And this is just the tip of the iceberg/what I happened to bookmark.

Anm

The National Interagency Fire Center statistics show that the average # of acres destroyed by forest fires have decreased by a factor of 10 over the last century...

So I'd say yes, before humans started fighting forest fires, nature was doing quite badly.