SALT LAKE CITY — France is battling historic wildfires this summer, but despite the headlines, Utah has already burned more than 100,000 acres more than all of France this year.
French Interior Ministry officials said on Monday that 13,566 fires have burned 116,000 hectares of land since the start of the year. That would make it the highest annual figure in the country's modern records.
But just over 5,000 miles away, the Beehive State has already burned 380,032 acres of land in the 2026 season, according to Utah Fire Info.
European and US officials differ on how they measure the land burned by wildfires. In Europe, the hectare is the metric unit of land and equals about 2.47 acres for every hectare. Using simple conversions, you can find that France has seen 286,641.8 acres burned so far, while Utah has burned 380,032 acres in 2026.
Meanwhile, in Spain, the Minister for Ecological Transition stated that 153,000 hectares of land have burned. In acres, that comes out to 377,910 acres, or about 2,122 acres less than Utah has burned in 2026.
Rising temperatures could complicate issues in Spain later this week as firefighters continue to battle a wildfire burning near the country's capital, Madrid. Spanish officials say that they have already seen their largest and third-largest fires every this year.
