Understanding How Massive the L.A. Fires Are

The scale of the infernos devastating Southern California is almost unimaginable.

In the span of just 10 days from Tuesday, Jan. 7, through Thursday, Jan. 16, at least 13 fires in and around Los Angeles County—including some that aren’t yet contained—have burned more than 40,000 acres, according to CAL FIRE, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

That’s an area greater than 30,000 football fields (1.32 acres each) or equivalent to about 270 golf courses (150 acres, on average). For reference, Manhattan, N.Y., is only about 14,600 acres, while Washington, D.C., is about 43,700 acres.

And, driven by a confluence of factors including fierce winds, the flames have continued to expand. Already, more than 12,000 structures have been destroyed and at least 28 people have been killed, according to CAL FIRE.

Read More: L.A. Fires Show the Reality of Living in a World With 1.5°C of Warming

As of 12 a.m. Pacific Time, Wednesday, Jan. 22, the ongoing Palisades fire, which has wreaked havoc on the coastal community of Pacific Palisades that’s home to many celebrities as well as surrounding neighborhoods, has an incident area of over 23,000 acres; the Eaton fire, centered further east in L.A. County around the city of Altadena, has an incident area of over 14,000 acres; the region’s 14th fire, the Clay fire, which broke out on Jan. 21 in neighboring Riverside County, has an incident area of 38 acres; and the since-contained Archer, Auto Hurst, Kenneth, Lidia, Little Mountain, Olivas, Scout, Sunset, Tyler, and Woodley fires had a combined incident area of over 2,000 acres.

Still, these California conflagrations, while on track to be the costliest in U.S. history, are far from the largest, even in the state—a record held, per CAL FIRE, by the 2020 August Complex fire that torched more than a million acres.