Alaska will pass the 1-million mark in acres burned today. We're at 921,716.4 acres as of this morning, which is an increase of almost 300,000 acres - 297,220 acres to be exact - from yesterday.

At this point, we're ahead of the acreage burned in 2004, which ranks #1 on the list of record fire seasons in Alaska. In 2004, there were a total of 701 fires that burned 6,590,140 acres.
As of Friday morning, we are already up to 594 fires and 921,716.4 acres burned and both those numbers are expected to go up.

To put things in perspective, there were 216 fires that burned 1,153,258 acres in June of 2004. That compares to 381 fires and 912,940.4 acres this June and we have five burn days left in the month. At this rate, we may hit the 2-million acre mark before June is over.

Here are today's official numbers from the Alaska Interagency Center Coordination Center in Fairbanks, along with a photo that Division of Forestry technican Trevor Kaufmann from the Kenai Area office took during response to the Card Street Fire on the Kenai Peninsula. (Photo at link https://www.facebook.com/AK.Forestry)

New fires: 28
Active fires: 317
Season to date fires: 594
Acreage burned: 921,716.4 acres