Critical Regional Fire Risk

Critical fire weather continues throughout the state with the hot and dry conditions. The Pioneer Fire has grown to 30,000 acres and continues to impact the communities of Chelan, Manson, and Stehekin. Dry lightning in North Central Washington also caused the Easy Fire (350 acres) and the Miners Complex (500 acres). On the Colville Reservation the Swawilla and Bridge Creek Fires are together burning almost 10,000 acres. In Southeast WA, the Cougar Creek Fire has grown to 8,270 acres. While temperatures will start to cool starting this evening as a dry cold front passes through the region, active fires will continue to grow due to the windy and dry conditions over the next few days.

Active fire detections in the region as of this morning:

MODIS and VIIRS Fire Detections for the past 2 days.

There are currently several very large fires in Oregon currently burning over 100,000 acres. Aside from contributing haze above the surface to the state, we don't expect any smoke impacts over the next few days from these large-scale Oregon Fires. There are also a few fires in British Columbia to keep an eye on--Calcite Creek (1300 acres) and Shetland Creek (43,000 acres)--smoke from these fires will stay away from Washington thanks to south/southwest winds over the next few days. There are also quite a few active wildfires in eastern BC north of the Idaho/Washington border--later in the week smoke from these fires could potentially influence Northeast WA, but impacts are uncertain as of now.

In Washington, communities closest to active wildfires will continue to observe the greatest smoke impacts. The current Air Quality Alert for Chelan County and Methow Valley remains in place. Air quality will likely be unhealthy on the Colville Reservation due to smoke from the Swawilla and Bridge Creek Fires; the Colville Confederated Tribes have issued an air quality advisory. Increasing winds from the west starting this evening will clear out lingering haze in the rest of the state. Please continue to recreate responsibly and heed all burn bans.