West of Chelan, the Little Giant fire continued to produce heavy smoke, while a cluster of smaller fires farther east near Spokane affected tens of thousands of people.
The smoke from these and other fires poured east-northeast across the state and into Idaho, Montana, and several Canadian provinces on the morning of August 2, 2026, when NASA’sTerrasatellite captured this image.
At that time, the Little Giant fire had burned more than 38,500 acres and was zero percent contained, according to the fire’sincident management team.
After lightning ignited the fire on July 15, gusting winds drove the blaze east to Lake Chelan, with spotting reaching the opposite side of the lake.
Smoke from the fire was expected to cause unhealthy to very unhealthy air quality in Chelan to the east and unhealthy conditions in Leavenworth and Wenatchee to the south, according to asmoke outlookissued by the U.S. Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program.
Meanwhile, the Spokane Area fires—which include the Old Trails fire, Fairview fire, and Autumn Lane fire—had burned around 5,400 acres since igniting the day before.
By the morning of August 3, that number had grown to more than 8,000 acres, according toInciWeb.
Preliminary reports indicated more than 600 structures had been destroyed or damaged, and mandatory evacuation orders were in place for parts ofSpokane CountyandStevens County.
Widespread smoke from these and the other fires in the state combined to producevery unhealthyair qualityin parts of the two counties.
These fires were part of an active fire season fueled by persistent drought and extreme fire weather.
Strong winds, high temperatures, and dry fuels led the National Weather Service to issue Washington’s first-ever “particularly dangerous situation alert” on July 31, a designation typically reserved for the most severe fire conditions.
Drought—declared in the statefollowing a warm winter andlow snowpack—left vegetation primed to burn.
By the start of August, those conditions had helped fuel more than 1,000 fires that burned about 425,000 acres since the start of the year, the most since 2021, according to the Washington StateDepartment of Natural Resources.
Of those,12 large firesremained active, together accounting for more than 200,000 acres burned.
TheNASA Disasters Programhas been activated to support agencies responding to the fires.
The team will be posting maps and data products on its open-accessmapping portalas new information becomes available.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASAEOSDIS LANCEandGIBS/Worldview. Story by Kathryn Hansen.
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InciWebLittle Giant Fire. Accessed August 3, 2026.
InciWebSpokane Area Fires. Accessed August 3, 2026.
Spokane Regional Clean Air AgencyCurrent Air Quality. Accessed August 3, 2026.
U.S. Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response ProgramSmoke Outlook: North Central Washington – Little Giant. Accessed August 3, 2026.
Washington Governor Bob FergusonGovernor Ferguson declares statewide wildfire emergency, issues statewide burn ban. Accessed August 3, 2026.
Washington State Department of Natural ResourcesWith 10 Large Wildfires Burning Across 200,000 Acres and Extreme Fire Conditions Ahead, DNR Shores up Resources With The National Guard.
Accessed August 3, 2026.
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