Wildland Firefighters battle the Bridge Coulee Fire, part of the Lodgepole Complex, east of the Musselshell River, north of Mosby, Montana, U.S. July 21, 2017. Bureau of Land Management/Jonathan Moor/Reuters

While the South drowns amid a succession of unprecedented and record-shattering hurricanes, the West is burning. 

Some 172 fires are burning across the region, 78 of which the National Interagency Fire Center considers “large” incidents of greater than 100 forested acres or 300 grassland acres.

So far this year, more than 8 million acres have burned, scarring and scorching western Montana and the Pacific Northwest, and smothering cities as far away as Denver in thick smoke.

That’s nearly twice the 10-year average of 5.5 million acres, and it’s taking its toll everywhere, including on state budgets.