Virginia wildfires

Are wildfire records common in Virginia?

Virginia averages about 2.7 wildfire records a year since 2000, 27th of 48 states and territories by count. The busiest year on record was 1999 (6). Per 10,000 square miles of land, Virginia records 11 wildfire records since 1996, 29th of 48 states and territories by that measure.

1. 1. Hawaii 441
2. 2. New Jersey 241
3. 3. Puerto Rico 137
4. 4. California 102
5. 5. Florida 91
6. 6. Oklahoma 88
7. 7. Delaware 87
8. 8. Washington 82
9. 9. Oregon 77
10. 10. Colorado 64
11. 29. Virginia 11

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records since 1996, per 10,000 square miles of land area (Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer; places under 1,000 square miles not ranked). Damage colours: Storm Events damage, 2025 dollars.

Which counties in Virginia have the most wildfire records?

Per square mile, Page County leads Virginia: 4 days with a wildfire record since 1996, 12.9 per 1,000 square miles of land. By raw count, Rockingham County has the most wildfire records (7 since 1996); large counties collect more records simply by covering more ground, so the ranking counts days with a record per unit of area (a storm filed for several forecast zones adds several records but one day).

1. Page County 12.9 (4)
2. Clarke County 11.4 (3)
3. Nelson County 8.5 (5)
4. Rockingham County 8.2 (7)
5. Shenandoah County 7.9 (4)
6. Greene County 6.4 (1)
7. Madison County 6.2 (2)
8. Warren County 4.7 (1)
9. Gloucester County 4.6 (1)
10. Alleghany County 4.5 (3)
11. Rappahannock County 3.8 (1)
12. Craig County 3.0 (1)

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, days with a record in the county since 1996 per 1,000 square miles of land (Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer); in brackets, the count of records.

When is fire season in Virginia?

47% of its wildfire records since 1996 fell in March and April. The busiest month is April (13 records).

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records by the month they began, since 1996.

The costliest wildfire records in Virginia

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database: property and crop damage as estimated by the National Weather Service, in 2025 dollars.

Are wildfire records becoming more frequent in Virginia?

Virginia's count per decade against the whole country's, and its share. NOAA recorded every event type only from 1996, so earlier decades are not comparable; the share of the national total is the fairer comparison across decades.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database.

The most recent wildfire records in Virginia

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records through June 30, 2026; the newest months are revised by NCEI as reports arrive. Search the record at NCEI.

Federal disaster declarations for wildfire records in Virginia

FEMA has declared 9 disasters in Virginia for wildfire, counting its incident type and declarations that name fire in the title (FEMA files most storm disasters under Severe Storm); one was a major disaster, the latest on February 20, 2011.

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries (v2), through October 2, 2026. OpenFEMA dataset page.

Next

• Page County: the county's whole recordThe Virginia county with the most wildfire records per square mile
• Wildfires across the United StatesEvery state ranked, by year and month
• Every natural hazard in VirginiaTornadoes, floods, storms, heat and the federal declarations
• Severe thunderstorm wind in Virginia20,677 records
• Winter storms in Virginia10,408 records
• Floods in Virginia8,165 records