As of March 30, multiple wildfires have raged across Nebraska, affecting more than 700,000 acres of the state. The extent of the fires, which is unprecedented in the state’s history, raises questions about what exactly is causing them to occur on such a large scale and what could impact them in the future.
The most major fire, Morrill Fire, was classified as a megafire, and was 100% contained by March 25. The fire was first reported on March 12 and burned over 642,000 acres. It is the largest wildfire of the 2026 United States wildfire season and the largest in Nebraska history. The fire impacted Morrill County, Garden County, Arthur County and Keith County.
While several other fires took place, including the Road 203, Cottonwood and Anderson Bridge fires, the Morrill Fire gained national coverage due to its severity.
The Morrill Fire, as well as many other wildfires spreading across the Midwest, were caused by ongoing red flag warning conditions, which are issued by the National Weather Service. Red flag conditions are created through a combination of elements that make combustion much more likely, such as high temperatures and low humidity and high wind speeds that make potential fires spread much more quickly. According to the official NWS website, long-term drought can be a contributing factor to red flag conditions.
This correlation can be confirmed by comparing the available mapping data of Nebraska droughts and wildfires. Available on the Wildfire Trackers website, national wildfires, including Nebraska’s, can be seen laid out across the counties and land they impacted. According to the website, data is retrieved from official government information. The mapping of the Morrill Fire corresponds with the recognized counties that were affected. Compared to drought mapping of the same areas, a pattern becomes evident.
The U.S. Drought Monitor is a website that compiles drought data across the United States and plots the information onto an easily understandable map that is updated every Thursday. Viewing the Nebraska data from this map, color-coordinated blocking shows users which areas of the state are facing drought. The second most severe of these levels is D3, a bright red that represents extreme drought. The areas marked with the D3 category share connections with the locations of the wildfires burning across Nebraska.
All four of the counties affected by the Morrill Fire are listed as D3 areas, as is part of Lincoln County, which is where the Cottonwood fire took place. This trend cannot be ignored in the larger conversation surrounding wildfires in Nebraska.
However, it is important to note that not all D3 areas on the USDM map are the locations of wildfires within Nebraska, as Grant County, Thomas County and Blaine County all experienced fires not marked D3. These locations, alongside the majority of Nebraska, are labeled as D2 areas. This means that the majority of the state is suffering from severe drought.
“Probably the worst drought that we’ve seen in Nebraska in the last few decades would still be from kinda the summer– late spring and summer– of 2012 into the first half or two-thirds of 2013 where we saw almost the entire state covered by our extreme drought red category,” Curtis Riganti, climatologist and drought expert, said. “At times almost 80% of the state covered in extreme drought.”
This time period coincides with the 2012 Nebraska wildland fire season, which was at the time the worst in the state’s history, according to records from the Nebraska Forest Service. The 2012 wildland fire season resulted in over 500,000 acres burned in the northwest part of the state.
In just one wildfire, which lasted only 13 days, that number has been broken by 142,000 acres.
“The current drought situation, it’s kind of hard to say how bad it’s going to get here,” Riganti said. “We’re not really close to some of those, the drought from several years ago or a decade ago. That’s not to say we can’t get there, but those were two very significant events.”
Even though the drought conditions of 2026 are not yet comparable to the conditions of 2012, wildfires are already far exceeding the year in terms of acres burned.
This is a worrying sign for Nebraska’s future, especially when paired with viral misinformation, making it harder to parse the truth of the situation.
One such example of the misreporting of these fires is an AI-generated aerial view of burning fields that dozens of accounts shared across social media during conversations about the Morrill Fire. The video gained hundreds of thousands of views on multiple sites as it was first shared, and it went on to be reposted en masse.
The introduction of AI into Nebraska’s wildfire crisis is especially concerning when compared to the physical ramifications it could have on wildfires in the future.
“Google is considering building a data center in Nebraska that could require more than three times the amount of power the entire city of Lincoln uses at peak demand in the summer,” according to an article published by Flatwater Free Press.
According to the same article, this could be the largest data center in Nebraska’s history. While confirmation of this center’s purpose is still unknown, Governor Jim Pillen said during his 2026 State of the State Address that he hoped to “win the electricity and AI power game.” Additionally, a property owner in Otoe County said a representative from the energy company Tenaska inquired about the property for a future AI data center, according to Flatwater Free Press. Tenaska made $65,000 in donations to Pillen’s 2025 campaign.
While this evidence is largely circumstantial and should not be taken as definitive proof of a future AI data center, it does raise questions about what a future in Nebraska could look like should one be built.
Already at a point of significant drought, Nebraska lacks the water resources necessary to cool a data center of that size. According to the Environmental and Energy study Institute, “large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day,” and freshwater is becoming a highly sought-after resource for these centers.
With Nebraska suffering from a record-breaking wildfire season that likely has roots to its severe drought crisis, a data center of any kind would pose a serious threat to the state’s environmental safety. As the situations continue, residents should be aware of how these systems impact one another and what the worsening of drought means for wildfires.
