here in l.a. county, covid cases are up 500% over the last month, and with the delta variant circulating the a skyrocketed 700% lester it s like a bad movie. miguel, thank you. let s turn to those raging wildfires in the west. more than a million acres have burned. the fire is fueled by the most severe drought in years and coming much earlier than usual nbc s jake ward has the latest. reporter: tonight dozens of wildfires raging out of control in the west. i guess we ve had what, three, four fires around here in the last month, and it s kind of getting scary. reporter: two million people under red flag warnings across five states, california, idaho, montana, washington, and oregon the bootleg fire is the first official mega fire of 2021. it s burned more than 200,000 acres, doubling in size for four straight days now nearly seven times the size of san francisco. and drought conditions in 94% of the west are making it all worse. it has never been this low