🔥Utah’s record-breaking wildfire season

Utah's wildfire season keeps breaking records, and this week brought sobering developments — from the Rocky Canyon and Widemouth 2 fires to two more firefighter deaths.

• Scaling the damage: As of Tuesday, more than 527,000 acres have burned statewide, according to Utah Fire Info. The Salt Lake Tribune built an interactive map that lets Utahns compare the burn scar to national parks and cities. [Utah Fire Info, Salt Lake Tribune]
• What's burning right now? The Rocky Canyon Fire in Morgan County is one of the state's newest fires. It's burned about 13,000 acres. Meanwhile, the Widemouth 2 Fire in central Utah has grown to become the state's largest wildfire this year, topping 122,000 acres as of Tuesday. [Salt Lake Tribune]
• Utah is trending toward bigger, more frequent forest fires. University of Utah researchers say the state broke the record for combined woodland and forest acreage burned in a single year. Three fires this year each burned more than 60,000 acres of trees. “That's never happened before,” one researcher said. [University of Utah]
• It’s been a deadly year. Two more lives were lost to this wildfire season: Firefighter pilots Chris Andersen and Miles Elliott died Aug. 7 when their aircraft crashed while supporting suppression efforts on the Widemouth 2 Fire. Earlier this summer, three firefighters were also killed near the Utah-Colorado border. [ABC4]
• Meanwhile, nine U.S. senators are urging the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to ban gambling on wildfires on prediction market apps, warning that betting could incentivize people to commit arson or mess with fire suppression efforts. [Outside Magazine]

Finding Love at 801 Day

City Cast Salt Lake neighbors Alonso and Oswaldo emailed us their love story, and the hopeless romantic in me must share. It began a few years ago at one of our 801 Day events, when they sat down next to pickleball courts to "define their relationship." Since then, the Salt Lake holiday has become an anniversary for them — "a celebration of their relationship and the city that brought them together," they wrote to us. Maybe you'll find love at next year's 801 Day? [City Cast Salt Lake]

Spot the Meteor Shower

On Aug. 12-13, the Perseid meteor shower will grace our skies with about 50 to 100 meteors per hour. While Utah has the highest concentration of certified International Dark Sky Places in the world, it might be a little tricky to see the astronomical event due to cloud coverage and potential wildfire smoke. [NASA, Axios Salt Lake City]

Free Back-To-School Supplies

Pssst, are you a parent or guardian? Loki Coffee is teaming up with the Salt Lake City Public Library for a back-to-school kickoff this Saturday, Aug. 15 with free supplies and library sign-ups. [Loki Coffee]

Enjoying Your Gas Tax Holiday?

Since July 1, Utahns have gotten a small discount at the gas pump thanks to a 15% cut to the state portion of the gas tax. That's a reduction of about six cents a gallon. But did your wallet feel it? [City Cast Salt Lake 🎧]