Six of Colorado’s largest fires have occurred in 2012, High Park fire now third largest in State’s history

Tony Hake over at the Examiner compiled a list of the 30 largest wildfires in Colorado’s history, and guess what? The High Park fire, now having burned more than 50,000 acres, is already third on Hake’s depressing list. The 2002 Hayman fire, which burned a total of 137,760 acres, is the largest fire in Colorado’s history.

26 of Colorado’s 30 largest fires have occurred since the year 2000, and six of those have happened during this year alone.

Ben Geman at The Hill wrote a post titled “Study: Climate change to increase wildfires,” but if the last ten years are any indication, wildfires have been increasing for some time now (in Colorado, at least.)

If Geman’s post is correct, then it’s likely that Colorado’s largest fires  list will continue to need updating, and blazes such as the horrendous Little Bear fire in New Mexico may become more common.

Related articles

• Hayman Fire: A Decade Later…(pieforensic.com)

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• Colorado snowpack at 2 percent of normal, leaving the state vulnerable for more wildfires(denverpost.com)

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• Colorado’s extremely low snowpack pushes wildfire risk higher(denverpost.com)

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About Nic Turiciano

Content Managing Editor Nic Turiciano is a senior journalism major. He writes about music, film, pop culture and all things associated with leisure. He began at the Collegian in the fall of 2009, is the former local director for 90.5 KCSU Fort Collins and contributor for www.theawl.com. He can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com.

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