The wildfires in California seem to be everywhere and still spreading. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, these fires have burnt down 3,627,010 acres of land in 2020 alone as of the week of 9/21. There are many different wildfires throughout California and the west coast, but the biggest by far is the August Complex. The August Complex started August 17th by a series of lightning strikes, and alone has already destroyed roughly 867,335 acres of land. That averages out to about 22,239 acres a day. Because the fire is so big, it is being managed as three separate incidents under a larger complex. This complex, as of September 24th, is only 40% contained. 

When a fire is contained, it means that some sort of control line has been put in place around the fire in order to stop it from spreading. Examples of different control lines include clearing brush surrounding the fire, a line of water, steam, or spraying other types of chemical retardant. 

The effects of fires like these don’t just affect California, they affect all the area surrounding them as well. A satellite image shown by USA today and other news sources, shows the smoke traveling hundreds of miles across the Pacific Ocean as of August 25th. Smoke has also blown in the opposite direction across the country, and can be seen in states as far as Missouri, Ohio, Mississippi, Virginia, and even New York, says the New York Times. In California the smoke heavily affects the AQI in surrounding areas, some air quality levels reaching as high as 185 as shown by AirNows air quality grid and smoke and fire map. And if these fires continue at this rate, it will start to severely affect surrounding states as well.