gigafire

Definitions

A wildfire which burns more than one million acres.

neologism

Examples

“When we coined the term "megafire" for wildfires that exceed 100,000 acres, it was in the back of our mind⟳ that if a fire reached 1 million acres it would be called a "gigafire".”

“In addition, due in part to human-caused warming and a drying climate, California recorded its first "gigafire" since modern records began in the early 1930s.”

“In a historic fire season with million-acre gigafires and more than two dozen deaths, the destruction in Happy Camp barely broke through the long list of dire news stories making the headlines.”

“From Category 5 hurricanes to flooding from sea-level rise⟳ to gigafires, the value of losses from severe weather or climate-related disasters in the United States over the past several years has been unprecedented.”

“Just a few years ago, fire scientists thought that the burn scars of all these megafires and gigafires might help⟳ check future spread⟳, theorizing that it would take⟳ a while for the landscape to recover⟳ and that what would grow⟳ back could prove⟳ less flammable than what burned originally.”

CEFR level