English: A fierce summer fire season continues to consume forests in the Western United States through late August 2022. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, on August 24 there were 41 large fires burning on 418,377 acres across ten states. Seven of these states are in the West. Idaho leads all the states in numbers of fires, with 11 currently burning on 116,660 acres. Nine fires burn in Montana, including one of those a new fire ignited on August 24, with total acreage at 18,928. Oregon has 6 fires on 11,334 acres; California’s 4 fires burn on 95,937 acres; 2 fires in Washington cover 2,230 acres; Utah’s only large fire burns on 11,720 acres; and in Wyoming, one large fire covers 2,925 acres. Non-Western states with actively burning large fires are Alaska, with 5 fires on 152,146 acres, and one fire each in North Carolina and North Dakota, burning on 1,226 acres and 5,289 acres, respectively.

On August 24, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) acquired a true-color image of fog and smoke over northern California and southern Oregon. While the fog (low cloud) creeps across the coastal lowlands and into the valleys, fires burn in the nearby forested highlands.

The southernmost fire, marked by copious smoke and a red “hot spot” where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures, is the Six Rivers Lightning Complex. On August 5, a lightning storm ignited twelve individual fires in the Humboldt and Trinity counties, California. Due to the aggressive response of firefighters, only two fires remain and are being managed as a single fire complex. The Six Rivers Lightning Complex is currently 27,635 acres with 80% containment and 1,493 personnel assigned to the incident.

The fire to the north of the Six Rivers Lightning Complex is the Rum Creek Fire. Also caused by lightning, this fire ignited on August 17 five miles north of Galice, Oregon. As of August 24, the Rum Creek Fire covers 779 acres and is being fought by 445 personnel. It has an estimated containment date of October 31. The Rum Creek Fire claimed the life of one 25-year-old firefighter.

An area of smoke in the northeast section of the image marks the Cedar Creek Fire. This fire sparked to life on August 1, also from lightning strike 15 miles east of Oakridge, Oregon and 3 miles west of Waldo Lake. With 1,022 personnel assigned to fight this fire, the Cedar Creek Fire has reached 7,172 acres as of August 24. No containment date has been estimated.