National Preparedness Level 5

as of August 18 at 8 p.m. MDT (on a scale from 1 to 5)

Current hours for the National Fire Information Center are
(MST) 8:00 am - 4:30pm, Monday - Friday
208-387-5050

This report will be updated daily.
Please check the IMSR for more information.

September 18, 2020

Critical fire weather is predicted for the Great Basin and western Rocky Mountains. The majority of large wildland fire activity is in California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. A total of 79 large fires have burned over 3.8 million acres.

NIMO (Houseman) has been assigned to COVID-19 support at Forest Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. NIMO (Reinarz) has been assigned to provide wildland fire support to California. NIMO (Day) has been assigned to provide wildland fire support to federal land management agencies in Oregon and Washington.  

Two hundred thirty-three soldiers from the 14th Brigade Engineer Battalion based out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington are deployed in support of the August Complex.

One RC-26 aircraft with Distributed Real-Time Infrared (DRTI) capability and support personnel from the 141st Air Refueling Wing (Washington Air National Guard) has been deployed to Fairchild AFB (Spokane, WA), in support of wildland fire operations.

Two MAFFS C-130 airtanker and support personnel each from the 153rd Airlift Wing (Wyoming Air National Guard) and the 146th Airlift Wing (California Air National Guard) have been deployed to support wildland fire operations in California.

One fire suppression crew and one overhead personnel from Quebec, Canada are supporting fire suppression efforts in northern California.

During this unprecedented time, the safety of the public and all wildland fire responders is always the number one priority for all wildland fire agencies. For more information and links to the Geographic Area Plans, visit the NIFC COVID-19 page.

Weather

The upper low will move onshore in the Pacific Northwest today with a cold front pushing south and east through the Pacific Northwest and into the Northern Rockies, Great Basin, and central California. Elevated to critical fire weather conditions are likely across much of the Great Basin and into the western Rocky Mountains. Visibility and air quality will improve across many locations due to the increased winds. Rain showers with embedded isolated to widely scattered thunderstorms are expected across the Pacific Northwest, northern Great Basin, and Northern Rockies. A cold front will move into the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic.

Arizona (1)
California (21)
Colorado (4)
Idaho (14)
Montana (9)
Nevada (1)
Oregon (12)
South Dakota (1)
Texas (1)
Utah (5)
Washington (8)
Wyoming (2)