See you next year!

This season's air quality

While some localized smoke impacts from fires in the Cascades are still lingering, recent wet and cool weather has helped wind down this summer's wildfire season. Looking back, most areas of the state experienced at least one day of USG or worse air quality this summer (based on air quality monitoring data). Coastal areas were the main exception, largely avoiding periods of impaired air quality. Central and Northeast Washington observed the most prolonged and extreme smoke impacts, largely due to their proximity to the season's largest fires.

A closer look at county-level totals of USG or worse air quality days this past summer shows that 2026 was an especially smoky year for Chelan, Okanogan, and several northeast counties as well. In the plot below, the black bars represent the number of USG or worse days in 2026 for each county. The grey bars are the previous highest USG or worse year for that same county (with the year denoted above the bar). While smoke is not unusual during Eastern WA summers, a few counties recorded their highest smoke exposure over the past 20 years.

Prescribed Burn Season Starting

This blog is intended to keep the public up to date on wildfire smoke, so this will be the final post for 2026. Just so we don’t leave you hanging, you can learn more about where prescribed burns will be taking place and why, on Washington Department of Natural Resources’ Prescribed Fire Program website and visit the Burn Portal to check out the calendar of upcoming burns and be sure to sign up for notifications to be alerted when burns are happening near you. Now is a great time to look back on the summer and ask yourself if you’re Smoke Ready.

photo c/o Nolan Brewer (WA DNR) Camas Meadows Rx burn 9/21/2026

As always, you can find resources to help prepare for future smoke events with DNR’s Smoke Resources page. 

If you’re reading this in the off-season, please bookmark us and return in June when we start gearing up again to share seasonal smoke information. In the meantime, be safe, be Smoke Ready, and we’ll see you next year!