Washington fire map

How to read the Washington map

The map layers government feeds scoped to Washington, and each is labeled for exactly what it is — no feed is dressed up as more than it measures.

• Active fires (WFIGS). Washington incident points from the National Interagency Fire Center — the interagency system of record — plus mapped perimeters for the subset of fires that publish one. A fire with no published perimeter shows as a point, never a guessed shape.
• Satellite heat detections (FIRMS). NASA flags thermal anomalies within about a minute of a satellite pass; the Washington layer is filtered from the national pull. A detection is a hot spot — not a confirmed fire, and not a photograph. A “live satellite fire map” here means heat detections, never imagery.
• Smoke — the grey plumes (HMS). The soft grey areas are NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis: analysts trace smoke plumes once a day from satellite imagery — overhead column smoke, dated, not a ground-level reading. Hover or tap a plume for its analysis date. Smoke drifts across state lines, so this layer isn’t Washington-only; see the dedicated smoke map, or check ground-level AQI on the air quality map.
• Air quality (AirNow). Ground-monitor AQI lives on the air quality map, shown with its agency credit.

Reading today’s Washington data

As of 2026-08-27 10:17 UTC, WFIGS shows 62 active wildfires in Washington covering roughly 626,080 acres (2,534 km²). The largest is Sinlahekin, at 156,699 acres (634 km²) and 56 % contained. NASA satellites logged 936 heat detections over Washington in the last 24 hours — thermal anomalies, not confirmed fires. By size, 3 are 100,000 acres or larger and 46 are under 1,000. Each figure is stamped with the agency time it was last updated.

New fires — last 48 hours

• Griffith — discovered 2026-08-25, 100 acres (0 km²) (1 day active)

Source: NIFC WFIGS — retrieved Aug 2026 · discovery time (WFIGS FireDiscoveryDateTime) · data as of 2026-08-27 10:17 UTC

Washington’s fire season, so far

Right now, 62 wildfires are active across Washington, and the largest handful dominate the acreage: the top 8 cover about 93% of the active total (a computed share). These are the fires currently on the feed, not a year-to-date total — a fire can sit at the top of the table even at 100% contained, because it stays on the active feed until it ages out and is never marked “extinguished.”

For running season-to-date acreage and incident counts, see wildfire season 2026, built from the same WFIGS system and updated as the year progresses.

For the national historical picture — how many US wildland fires burn and how many acres they take every year since 1983, from the official NIFC record — see US wildfire statistics. It’s the long-run context Washington’s current fires sit inside.

A verified Washington-specific all-time ranking (the state’s largest fires in history) needs a state-level historical dataset we’re still verifying — so this page doesn’t publish one rather than show history we can’t yet stand behind. The table above ranks the largest fires active today.

Largest fires of 2026 in Washington

• Sinlahekin 156,699 acres (634 km²)
• Little Giant 149,863 acres (606 km²)
• Kaiser Canyon 138,293 acres (560 km²)
• Modrite 57,594 acres (233 km²)
• Colwash 39,073 acres (158 km²)
• Ptarmigan 24,770 acres (100 km²)
• Twin Sisters 8,262 acres (33 km²)
• Three Queens 7,758 acres (31 km²)
• Border 2 7,633 acres (31 km²)
• Hudspeth 6,726 acres (27 km²)

Top 10 by acreage on the live WFIGS feed · Source: NIFC WFIGS — retrieved Aug 2026 · data as of 2026-08-27 10:17 UTC. All-time historical rankings await a verified historical source.

Who manages wildfire in Washington

Responsibility is split between state and federal agencies; this map reads the interagency record they publish. For a specific incident’s official status, evacuation orders, or emergency information, go to the responsible agency — this map is situational awareness, not an emergency service.

• Washington Department of Natural Resources — state lead on wildfire on DNR-protected lands.
• USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region — federal lead on national forest lands in Washington.
• National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) — interagency coordination; publisher of the WFIGS system of record this map reads.

What you can do with it

• See where fires are in Washington today. The map and the largest-active-fires table answer it at a glance — statewide, or zoomed to your region.
• Check a specific part of Washington. Pan to Eastern Washington (the drier country east of the Cascades) or Western Washington (the Cascades and the Puget Sound lowlands) — the whole state is on one map; there is no separate page to hunt for.
• Find fires near you. Allow location and the map recenters on you; the near-me view is served by your browser, so city-level checks don’t need their own page.
• See if your area is smoky. Cross to the smoke map and the air quality map, or step back to the national wildfire map.

No app to install — it works in any browser, on any device.

Frequently asked questions

What are the grey areas on the Washington map?

They are wildfire-smoke plumes from NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System (HMS) — a dated, once-daily satellite analysis of where smoke is in the atmosphere. It is smoke aloft, not necessarily at ground level, so a grey area can sit overhead while the air you breathe is clear. Hover or tap a plume for its analysis date. For smoke alone see the smoke map; for ground-level AQI see the air quality map.

Where are the fires in Washington today?

The live map and the largest-active-fires table at the top of this page show every large wildfire currently on the national feed for Washington. Zoom to your region to see what is burning right now.

How many wildfires are burning in Washington right now?

As of 2026-08-27 10:17 UTC, WFIGS reports 62 active Washington wildfires. That is a count of fires currently on the active feed, not a year-to-date total.

Is there a fire near me in Washington?

Allow location access and the map recenters on you; the near-me view is served by your browser’s location, so there is no separate page to find. City- and county-level queries are answered by panning and zooming this one map.

Where are the Eastern Washington fires?

Pan the map to Eastern Washington — the drier country east of the Cascades. There is no separate Eastern Washington map; the state map shows every active fire.

What are the largest wildfires in Washington?

The table above ranks the largest fires active today, by reported acreage. An all-time historical ranking needs a verified historical dataset, which we have not finished verifying — so we do not publish one here rather than show unsourced history.

Is this a live Washington wildfire tracker?

Yes — it reads WFIGS incidents, NASA FIRMS heat detections, and NOAA HMS smoke, each stamped with its own agency time, and runs in any browser with nothing to install.

Where the Washington data comes from

Every number on this page traces to a primary government feed — WFIGS (NIFC) for incidents, FIRMS (NASA) for heat detections, and HMS (NOAA) for smoke — with the exact source and “data as of” time shown beside it. Missing data is shown as missing, never zero or inferred; totals such as active-fire acreage are labeled as computed sums, not year-to-date figures. Perimeters are published for only a subset of fires; where none exists, the fire shows as a point.

The full source list, licenses, and a live feed-health strip are on the data sources & methodology page.

Source: NIFC WFIGS — retrieved Aug 2026 · Source: NASA FIRMS — retrieved Aug 2026 · data as of 2026-08-27 10:17 UTC