Meaning

(neologism) A wildfire which burns more than one million acres..

Example Sentences

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.

Word Forms

• gigafires

When Should You Use Gigafire?

Use gigafire when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

Practice This Word

Frequently Asked Questions