There are many wildfires ablaze in the Western part of the United States. Very dry and hot conditions combined with winds fanning the flames have pushed the number of fires and the amount of acreage burned up. The wildfire season usually starts in April, so it still is early on in the season.
As the below infographic based on data published by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI, part of NOAA) shows, it has already been one of those years with a vast amount of acres burned. Especially, taking into account that this chart depicts data for the first half of the year for 2000 to 2016 and this year's data includes January to May figures only.
If weather conditions don't change dramatically this year is likely to be a fiery one. Just like 2002, 2006 and especially 2011 that stick out as years in which the total burnt acreage was high in the first six months. 4.8 million acres were burned in 2011 in more than 36,000 fires of all sizes.
A million acres are about half the size of Puerto Rico or four times the size of New York City.
You will find more statistics at Statista
