Suggested Searches

3 min read

Washington State and Oregon Also Seeing Active Fire Season

Fires in Washington state
Much attention has been directed to the horrific fires in California, but in Washington state alone there are dozens of fires burning.

Much attention has been directed to the horrific fires in California, especially the Carr fire that is currently burning in the state and causing havoc for residents and firefighters alike. But there are hundreds of other fires burning across the United States each day that do not get the attention that the “superfires” get. In Washington state alone there are dozens of fires. In this satellite image, five of those fires will be highlighted in this story.

The Gilbert fire, the northernmost fire in this satellite image, began on July 28th with a lightning strike. The current size of the fire is 3,000 acres. This fire is using timber, mixed conifer and subalpine fire as fuels. Weather concerns for this fire include extreme fire behavior with wind driven runs and short range spotting which is a fire behavior characterized by sparks or embers being carried up by the wind and/or convective column and falling into other downwind fuels to ignite additional fires beyond the zone of the main fire. Near 100 personnel are working this fire and containment isn’t expected until sometime in October.

The Bannock Lakes fire is a relatively small fire in the range of 30 acres as of Aug. 02. The cause of this blaze is unknown at this time and the fire was discovered July 28. No further information is available on this fire.

The Cougar Creek fire is a much larger blaze located south and east of the above two fires. This fire has burned 3,614 acres and is being fought by 426 firefighters and other personnel. The estimate containment date for this blaze is September 15. This blaze was also caused by a lightning strike. The fire behavior exhibited by this blaze include: extreme crowning (fire that has ascended from the ground into the forest canopy), wind driven runs and spotting. Weather concerns include breezy and gusty winds. Observed gusts of 40 mph on ridge tops Thursday. Expected gusts of 30 mph Friday. Cooler weather is coming in and that is helpful but the high winds cause major problems in firefighting.

Oregon’s South Valley fire started Aug. 01 and the cause of the fire is under investigation. From Aug. 1 to today the fire has grown to 20,000 acres and is 20% contained. Once again in the South Valley fire as in the other fires dry fuels and steady winds have contributed to the fire’s spread.

Oregon’s other fire seen in this satellite image is the Long Hollow fire which started from farm equipment southeast of Dufur, Oregon, on July 26th, and quickly spread into the Deschutes River canyon. As of July 31, the fire size is estimated at 33,451 acres and is 95% contained. Hot and dry conditions continue with low relative humidity, and poor humidity recovery. These type of weather conditions help fires to spread. This is Wasco and Sherman County’s third major fire this season impacting approximately 230,000 acres total.

This satellite image was captured on August 02, 2018. Actively burning areas (hot spots) are outlined in red. Each hot spot is an area where the thermal detectors recognized temperatures higher than background. When accompanied by plumes of smoke, as in this image, such hot spots are diagnostic for fire. NASA image courtesy of the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) project. Caption by Lynn Jenner with information from Inciweb and the National Interagency Fire Center.