TL;DR
Over 1,600 wildfires have scorched 100,000 acres in Florida's worst drought since 2001, with burn bans expanding.
MSM Perspective
The Tallahassee Democrat reports Florida's wildfire season could be one of the worst in state history.
X Perspective
Florida weather accounts posting fire maps and acreage counts that look more like California than the Sunshine State.
By April 12, the Florida Forest Service had responded to 1,596 wildfires that have burned over 100,000 acres across the state — a 75% increase from the same period last year. [1]
The numbers reflect the severity of Florida's worst drought in a quarter century. Over 85% of the state is classified in at least severe drought, with portions of the Suwannee Valley reaching exceptional drought status, the most extreme category. The dry spell traces to La Nina conditions that suppressed winter rainfall, leaving the state's sandy soils and palmetto scrub tinder-dry. [2]
Burn bans are expanding. Pasco County banned all outdoor burning in January and has not lifted it. Alligator Alley — the stretch of I-75 crossing the Everglades — has faced intermittent closures from wildfires encroaching on the highway. The Florida Forest Service has deployed 75 resources to a single fire on Picayune Strand State Forest.
Recent rain provided brief respite in parts of Central Florida, but the drought persists statewide. Forecasters see no sustained relief before the wet season, which typically begins in late May or June. The state that Americans associate with hurricanes and flooding is instead watching itself burn — slowly, acre by acre, in a fire season that still has weeks to run.
— MAYA CALLOWAY, New York
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