U.S. wildfires聽have burned 8,202,557 acres this year, the 聽posted Wednesday. The聽number is greater than any other year in recorded history as of September 1, .听
In 2006, the worst wildfire year to date, a total of 9,873,745 acres were burned. But only 7,663,928 had been consumed by September 1, more than聽500,000 fewer than this year.听
A major contributing factor to the total acres consumed this year was a series of large fires in Alaska that have burned more than 5 million acres already, according to . Washington state has also been battling fires, with over 900,000 acres consumed in 16 currently burning fires.听
鈥淲hile nobody around here really likes to make bets with where we鈥檒l end up with fire season, there鈥檚 certainly the potential to hit that record mark,鈥 Jennifer Jones,聽spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service,聽told The Washington Post.
There are currently 56 reported large (upwards of 100 acres)聽fires across the country, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, and the national wildfire preparedness level has been at its highest鈥攍evel 5鈥攕ince August 13. For the first time ever, more than 50 percent of the Forest Service鈥檚 budget will be used fighting fires.