Half of the 16 historic wildfires currently burning in the western U.S. are the size of Chicago or bigger, data shows.
The numbers put the situation unfolding along the West Coast into perspective as California, Oregon and Washington state are seeing wildfires that have burned faster and farther than ever before, blanketing large swaths of the U.S. with thick smoke.
In California, wildfires have destroyed over 4,000 buildings and engulfed 3.3 million acres of land - an area greater in size than the state of Connecticut. Oregon and Washington have been hit hard as well. Over one million acres have burned in Oregon, compared with over 680,000 acres in Washington.
The August Complex Fire currently burning in California was reported to be 787 square miles as of Sunday. That number is 3.5 times Chicago's 227 land square miles. In Oregon, the Beachie Creek Fire was 295 square miles, or 1.3 times the size of Chicago.
To see how some of the biggest active fires compare to the size of your city or state, check out NBC News' interactive map below.
This year's fire season has scorched more than 7,000 square miles, or over 4.4 million acres, in three states. That's equivalent to the land area of the state of New Jersey, according to a comparison by NBC News. The August Complex fire, among the largest in California, is almost double the size of Los Angeles.
