Now burning, the McKinley Fire, which has spread to more than 4,300 acres in Alaska, has destroyed at least 80 structures so far, the Alaska Division of Forestry reported Wednesday morning.
48 large fires are actively burning in 12 states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Alaska is battling eight wildfires; Texas 7; Arizona and Idaho six each; Montana and Utah five each; Oregon and Washington three each; New Mexico two; and California, Oklahoma and Wyoming one each.
Wldfires are a normal part of life in Alaskan forests. While the state is experiencing an “extreme” fire season this year, with over 2.5 million acres burned, the size of the fires is still well short of the record set in 2004 – 6.5 million acres.
The number of major fire years, in which more than a million acres burned, has also increased in Alaska, says Rupp. Although there were only eight major fire years from 1950 to 1989, from 1990 to 2018 there were 11 years in which more than a million acres burned.
Fire seasons that see the burning of a million acres are not unusual,“What has been changing is the frequency and the magnitude of these fires.”
For comparison, Connecticut is about 3.5 million acres and Massachusetts is about 6.7 million acres.
More than 13.5 million acres of Siberia are ablaze too.