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Utah entered 2026 with heightened concerns about the wildfire season, given the record-low snowpack. Those concerns materialized as wildfires burned across Utah, affecting nearly every corner of the state. The 2026 wildfire season might be better described as a wildfire year. For example, on Jan. 22, the Beaver Canyon Fire started near Strawberry Reservoir in Wasatch County. At that time of year, the area should have been under several feet of snow. …More than half a million acres have burned in Utah in 2026, making it the state’s most severe fire season since 2007, when 629,212 acres burned. The next-highest total in recent history was 438,983 acres in 2018. This summer, Utah experienced several megafires, three of which made the list of the top 10 Utah wildfires since 2002, including the Widemouth 2 Fire at 129,741 acres burned, the Babylon Fire at 107,189 acres burned, and the Cottonwood Fire at 97,464 acres burned.