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Tuesday began with 79 active wildfires, with fourteen of them larger than one hundred acres. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, there have been more fires and more acres burned so far than this time last year.

Active wildfires are burning in every part of the state, from West of Boca Raton to rural Washington County in the Panhandle. In a sharp contrast to most years, the panhandle is actually wetter than peninsula Florida. And that worries Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.

“The drought index today is about 100 points worse than it was at the same point a year ago,” Commissioner Putnam said. “We’ve lost more acres, about 10,000 more acres to date this year than we did at this point last year.”

The average drought index for the state is 473, that’s a moderate risk. But nearly half the state is already showing extreme conditions. Worse than last year when a wildfire claimed two firefighters.

“It’s gonna take a tropical event or a long, prolonged rainfall to get out of this drought,” Florida Forestry Chief Jim Karls said.

Controlled burns like this one remain firefighters’ greatest weapon against wildfires, but…

The problem is that it has been so dry and so windy this year, controlled burns like this one are few and far between.

Governor Rick Scott and Cabinet members got their first wildfire briefing of the season on Tuesday. It won’t be their last.

“I hope that we have more rain, it would be nice. And then no hurricanes,” Scott said.

Since January, more than 58,000 acres have burned in Florida.

Lawmakers agreed to spend 5.6 million replacing or repairing firefighting equipment in this budget year.