Statewide Smoke Update: Pioneer, Cougar Creek, and Emerging Incidents

Fires were very active on Tuesday

Conditions were very favorable yesterday for significant fire growth, and both the Pioneer and the emerging Cougar Creek incident took full advantage of the hot and dry weather. The Pioneer fire put off a massive smoke plume on Tuesday afternoon, and the smoke is lingering in the Lake Chelan basin today. Air quality is expected to remain at UNHEALTHY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS levels for Stehekin through Thursday, with periods of UNHEALTHY and VERY UNHEALTHY in the evenings and overnight. Farther down-lake toward Manson and Chelan, air quality is expected to improve into the MODERATE category through tonight as southerly winds develop this evening. Similarly, air quality in the Methow Valley is expected to range from MODERATE to UNHEALTHY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS over the next 24-48 hours. The best and most up to date air quality information from the Pioneer Fire can be found in the Air Resource Advisor smoke outlook, updated daily at https://fire.airnow.gov/.

    Satellite imagery from Tuesday, July 16th, showing active fire behavior on the Pioneer Fire (north-central Washington) and the emerging Cougar Creek Fire (far southeast Washington).

Imagery courtesy of College of DuPage.

The Cougar Creek Fire also grew about 3,000 acres on Tuesday after burning 150 acres on Monday evening. Fire activity has been tamped down temporarily on Wednesday due to cloud cover, but smoke impacts are likely to continue from this fire over the next week. The most significant impacts will continue to be for communities near the fire and northeast of the fire, with Anatone, Clarkston, and Asotin likely experiencing periods of UNHEALTHY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS to UNHEALTHY air quality.

More Wildfire Ignitions Expected Today 

Abundant lightning has ignited numerous new fires in Oregon over the past 24 hours, and lightning is spreading across Washington through Wednesday night. We will be closely monitoring the emerging incidents in both Oregon and Washington over the next 24-48 hours, and will provide an update when there is more certainty on where smoke impacts are likely to be the greatest for this weekend. At this time, western Washington does not appear to be under imminent threat from wildfire smoke, but areas along the Cascades and to the east need to stay alert for possible wildfire smoke impacts over the next several days.