Wildfire Emission Estimates for 2020
Wildfire Emission Estimates for 2020
Background
California wildfire activity in 2020 was historic in scale. State data reported 500 wildfires totaling approximately 4.2 million acres, two to three times more area than in elevated wildfire activity years 2008, 2017, or 2018 (Figure 1). As in previous active years, a few largearea wildfires comprised most of the year's burned area. Over half of the state total acreage burned was dominated by five fires: August Complex, SCU Complex, Creek, North Complex, and Hennessey. The August Complex was the largest area ever recorded for a single fire event. Large areas and high fuel loads (associated with forested lands) together with dry conditions fostered extensive fuel consumption and large magnitude emissions. California Air Resources Board (CARB) staff used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based data on wildfire perimeters, vegetation fuels and fuel moisture, burn severity, as inputs to a fire emission model to estimate emissions from all fires in the dataset. Information related to these input data and model can be found in CARB's Technical Documentation1 and answers to frequently asked questions can be found here2.
Emissions Modeling Results
A wildfire's total emissions represents the contribution from the mosaic of vegetation types and fuels consumed within the wildfire area or "footprint". Forest and woodland vegetation types contain greater fuel loads per unit area than vegetation types dominated by shrubs, herbaceous plants, or grasses. Table 1 provides a summary of total acres burned by wildfires in 2020, along with fuel consumed and both carbon dioxide (CO2) and particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5)3 emissions.
Table 1. Summary of 2020 Wildfire Area, Fuel Consumption, And Emissions
Wildfire Area Burned
(million acres)
Fuel Consumed (short tons)
CO2 (million metric tons)
PM10 (thousand short
tons)
PM2.5 (thousand short
tons)
4.2
81,097,083
106.7
1,394
1,181
Table 2 provides total acres burned and emissions for the top twenty largest wildfires, which comprised approximately 90 percent of total area burned and accounted for over 90 percent of total CO2, PM10, and PM2.5 emissions from all wildfires in 2020.
1 Method and Data Used in Wildfire Emission Estimation () 2 3 Inhalable Particulate Matter and Health (PM2.5 and PM10) | California Air Resources Board
1
Table 2. Top 20 Wildfires of 2020.
Fire Name August Complex
Wildfire Area Burned (acres)1
1,032,700
CO2 (million metric
tons)
27.7
PM10 (thousand short
tons)
368
PM2.5 (thousand short
tons)
312
SCU Complex
396,399
4.6
34
29
Creek
379,882
13.8
190
161
North Complex
318,777
10.9
132
112
Hennessey
305,352
3.5
27
23
Castle
170,648
6.4
84
71
Slater2
157,430
6.7
88
74
Red Salmon Complex
143,836
4.6
63
54
Dolan
124,527
2.1
27
23
Bobcat
115,998
2.5
24
21
CZU Complex
86,553
5.4
104
88
W-5 Cold Springs2
84,817
0.7
6
5
Caldwell
81,224
0.4
3
3
Glass
67,484
1.9
28
24
Zogg
56,338
0.7
6
5
Wallbridge
55,209
4.1
78
66
River
50,214
0.9
9
7
Loyalton
46,721
0.7
9
8
Dome
44,211
0.1
0.4
0.3
Apple
33,209
0.8
9
8
1 Emission estimates are associated with wildland vegetation and do not include developed areas, croplands, or water bodies.
2 Excludes emissions associated with areas beyond state boundary.
Figures 1 to 4 present annual wildfire acreages and emissions of CO2, PM10, and PM2.5 for 2000 to 2020.
2
Burn Area (Million Acres)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Figure 1. Acreage of Burned Wildland Vegetation Area*.
4.5 4.08
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.59
1.5
1.35
1.34
0.94
1.04
1
0.72
0.75
0.79
0.49 0.5 0.24 0.23
0.27 0.22
0.43
0.56 0.53 0.55
0.09 0.20
0.28
0
* These acreages do not include areas where wildland vegetation data for model inputs are not available, e.g., developed areas and croplands. Figure 2. Estimates of Wildfire CO2 Emissions.
120 106.7
100
80
60
41.7
39.1
40
31.3
20
18.3 13.5
19.9 12.6
5.4 6.2
5.2 2.0
8.8
11.3 14.7 17.2 19.2 10.5
1.3 3.1
4.8
0
CO2 Emissions (Million Metric Tons)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
3
PM10 Emissions (thousand Short tons)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Figure 3. Estimates of Wildfire PM10 Emissions.
1,400
1,393
1,200
1,000
800
596 600
497
398 400
234 246
200
167 137
137 171
71 81
50 15
152 176 84
13 34
122
56
0
Figure 4. Estimates of Wildfire PM2.5 Emissions.
1,400
1,200
1,181
1,000
800
600
505
421
400
337
199 208
200
141 116
116 145
60 69
42 12
129 149 71
11 29
104
48
0
PM2.5 Emissions (thousand Short tons)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
4
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