©Wasco County

A wildfire burning in a sparsely populated region of central Oregon has become the largest fire burning in the U.S. this year and is on the verge of surpassing 100,000 acres to become what’s officially known as a megafire. Nearly 900 personnel have been battling the Cram Fire northeast of Madras, and they have it about 73% contained with more than 95,000 acres burned. Here’s a look at what megafires are and their increasing frequency in the warming world. …There were at least 14 wildfires that burned more than 100,000 acres in the U.S. in 2024, according to a report by the National Interagency Coordination Center. A 2022 Interior Department report found that the number of megafires, which it defined as more than 100,000 acres, had increased in the preceding decade. The amount of forest area burned each year in the western U.S. has approximately tripled since the 1980s, according to Brian Harvey, professor of forest fire science at the University of Washington.