Boise, Idaho ? The West and Southeast face an increased wildfire risk this year because of ongoing drought and an expected hotter than average summer, the National Interagency Fire Center reported Tuesday.

The center identified broad swaths of those regions – including all of Florida – and central Alaska as having increased chances of catching fire.

“One of the things that strikes me is the breadth of the fire season, stretching from Florida and Georgia all the way up to Alaska,” said Rick Ochoa, national fire weather program manager at the center.

The National Wildland Fire Outlook report predicts the wildfire danger for May through August. It is based on past and expected weather patterns combined with the predicted amount and dryness of fire fuels and their potential to ignite.

This year’s map looks similar to last year, said Tom Wordell, wildland fire analyst at the center.

In 2006, a record 9.8 million acres burned, 2,300 buildings were destroyed, fire suppression costs totaled $1.4 billion, and 24 wildland firefighters died.

“We’re a bit nervous,” Wordell said. But he said there were too many variables to say 2007 will be a repeat of 2006.

In the Southeast, dry conditions in southern Florida have expanded northward to include the rest of the state and southern portions of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.

The fire season is already on in Georgia, where a wildfire has burned 125 square miles of forest and swampland in the southeast part of the state in the last two weeks.

The only areas with below-normal danger include small portions of northeast New Mexico and southeast Colorado, and portions of the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas.