The 2026 Fire Season Is Already Breaking Records

Photo by Alex Widmer on Unsplash Before the Northern Hemisphere’s summer fire season has even begun, the planet is already on a record-setting pace. From January through April of this year, wildfires burned more than 150 million hectares of land worldwide, about 20% above the previous record, according to a briefing released by World Weather Attribution on May 11, 2026 . The fires were not concentrated in any one country or region.