LINCOLN- A combination of worsening drought and consistently strong winds, have lined up 2022 as the second-worst wildfire year to date in Nebraska.

The State Fire Authority predicts that 2023 will follow the pattern unless precipitation greatly increases over the remainder of fall and into the winter.

“It’s weird. We’re not in a normal pattern. And it doesn’t seem like we’re going to break that pattern any time soon,” said Matt Holte, fire program leader for the Nebraska Forest Service.

So far this year, about 200,000 acres of grasslands, cropland and forests have burned in the state, Holte said. That compares with about 502,000 acres blackened in 2012, the previous record holder.

The fires of 2012 — another drought period — scorched an area larger than Douglas and Sarpy Counties combined, blackening large swatches of forest south of Chadron in the Pine Ridge and north of Ainsworth along the Niobrara River.

This year will be remembered for its large and fast-moving fires led by two, the Road 702 and Road 739 fires in April. Pushed by high winds, the fires quickly spread, outracing fire lines and fire crews. One fire burned 22 miles across pastures and crop fields.

The 2022 fire year has inspired a greater awareness about the dangers associated with wildfires — three firefighters died this year — and the need to train and coordinate fire-fighting attacks has only been heightened.

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