a bit of morning math

CNN

News out of Arizona this morning is the Wallow Fire, started on May 29th and still burning, is the largest fire in Arizona state history. This morning it is still less than 1/3rd contained and approaching 500,000 acres in size.

CNN

How big is 500,000 acres?

An acre is 43,560 sq. ft. so 500,000 acres is 21 billion, 780 million square feet. Think of about half the Lincoln Avenue side of the ClockTower as roughly 100 feet wide.

CNN/Getty

So 500,000 acres would be a strip of fire half the width of the ClockTower by 217 million, 800,000 feet in length. There’s 5,280 feet in a mile so that’s about 41,250 miles.

Reuters

That’s enough fire at 100 feet wide 

to almost wrap around the earth twice.

NASA