California FIre Science Consortium

Fast Fires, Big Data, and the Future of Wildfire Risk

November 5, 2026 | 3:10pm PT/6:10pm ET

Abstract: Faster fires, more intense night fires, and urban conflagrations all reflect how our nation’s ‘wildfires’ have gotten more extreme in recent decades. People have fundamentally altered the three ingredients needed for fire: fuel to burn, hot and dry conditions, and an ignition source. Fire is also a big data frontier with a wealth of information, from satellites to social media, that can be leveraged to delineate future wildfire risk and develop solutions. We have seen the most expensive wildfire seasons in the U.S. in the past decade, costing >$150B. We need to learn to live with fire, again. But how? This is an all-hands on deck moment where we must bring together people, data, and ideas. Ultimately, we need to burn better and build better.

Presenter: Jennifer Balch, PhD