Along with sparking increased debate about climate change, the ongoing drought conditions in Texas have made the state ripe for wildfires this year. Meteorologists are predicting Texans will not see relief from the extreme weather until later this year, or even possibly not until well into 2012. Which means firefighters are likely to continue to see more of the blazes like the Possum Kingdom Lake fire, which began Tuesday and has claimed dozens of homes and thousands of acres of land.
Here are some of the numbers associated with Texas' record-breaking year of drought and wildfires.
135: The number of firefighters that were still fighting the Possum Kingdom Lake fire on Friday.
60: The percentage of the Possum Kingdom Lake fire that had been contained by Friday afternoon.
6,500: The approximate number of acres that the fire had burned as of Friday. It has also destroyed at least 39 homes since it began, and left 1,300 families and businesses without power as of Thursday.
160: The number of homes that another fire in the Possum Kingdom Lake area destroyed in April.
18,000: The number of wildfires that have been reported in Texas this year.
3.4: The number of acres of land, in millions, that have burned in the state since January.
660: The number of homes lost in the state so far this year to wildfires.
14: The number of wildfires still burning across Texas on Saturday. Combined they had so far burned more than 20,654 acres of land by Friday.
1895: The year Texas began keeping rainfall records. 2011 has been declared the worst one-year drought in the state's recorded history.
50: The percentage reduction in the amount of rain that Texas usually gets as opposed to what has fallen this year.
16.03: The number of inches of rainfall that Texas gets in an average year.
80: The percentage of the state that is suffering under "exceptional" drought. 99 percent of Texas is dealing with drought conditions at the level of "severe" or worse.
5: The number of dollars, in billions, the state's agriculture industry has suffered in losses so far this year.
251: The number of counties in Texas, out of 254, that have burn bans in place. Wildfires have already affected 252 of the state's counties this year.
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