Yesterday, 84 new fires were reported nationwide, including seven new large fires. Firefighters are currently working to contain 101 uncontained large fires. The National Preparedness Level remains at 5, with more than 30,000 personnel assigned to incidents nationwide.
The Northwest remains the nation's most active fire area, with 44 uncontained large fires. Fires including Wrights Spring, Little Giant, Big Grass and Sinlahekin continue to exhibit active or extreme fire behavior, with evacuations and closures in effect and homes, communities and critical infrastructure threatened.
So far in 2026, firefighters have responded to 46,509 wildfires that have burned more than 6.4 million acres, 126% and 155% of the 10-year averages, respectively.
Weather
Elevated to locally critical fire conditions are expected across eastern New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and southern Kansas due to breezy south winds gusting up to 35 mph, very hot temperatures near 105°F and RH of 10-25%. In the West, most areas will see light winds outside of thunderstorms and temperatures up to about five degrees above normal. RH will drop to 10-25% across much of the West, and 20-30% in the Greater Four Corners. Lightning with little or no wetting rain is the primary concern for central/northern California, north central/northeast Washington, the Idaho Panhandle, and southwestern/south-central Montana. Elsewhere, isolated to scattered mixed wet/dry thunderstorms are forecast from the northern Cascades into northwest Montana, and from eastern Idaho into Wyoming. A backdoor cold front will bring higher RH and scattered wetter thunderstorms east of the Divide in Montana with isolated to scattered mostly wet thunderstorms from the eastern Sierra to the West Slope, and into the Southwest. Scattered thunderstorms are expected from the Mid- Mississippi Valley to the Carolina coast and Florida. Alaska’s eastern Interior remains warm and mostly dry with very isolated thunderstorms. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will be warmer and drier with strengthening trade winds.
