A Look At Washington Wildfires & A Wildfire State of Emergency

As cooler marine air keeps Western Washington in the 70s-80s, several wildfires are growing in Eastern Washington. A good explanation of this is found on the Cliff Mass Weather Blog.

Image found here.

The image above is of an air tanker dropping fire retardant on the Batterman Road Fire, currently burning near East Wenatchee. As of 7 PM Thursday, this fire has burned 14,325 acres. There is good news, though. On Thursday evening, the fire reached ~50% containment, and some evacuation orders were lifted. More information below from King 5 News:

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/wildfire/batterman-fire-in-douglas-county-grows-to-1000-acres-evacuation-notices-given/281-8241167a-6700-4df1-a383-87532a7f9c69

Below is the approximate location of the Batterman Road Fire.

Batterman Road Fire Forecast: (from Weather Underground)

Expect highs of 97-101, with humidity of 15-50%. Winds will be 10-20 mph, with higher gusts, problematic for a grassland fire. Thankfully, it is 50% contained.

Batterman Road is not the largest fire in the state. To find that, we need to travel down to Asotin County, in the southeast corner of Washington (arrows pointing to Asotin County).

Image found here.

A few fires are burning in central Asotin County, with the biggest being the Dry Gulch Fire, per the Washington State DNR.

This fire is one to watch, considering it has burned 25,000 acres in just over a day and is 0-10% contained, per different reports. It is near the Silcott Fire (~8,600 acres, 0% contained), and due to their close proximity, they are being known as the Asotin Complex Fire. A photo of the fire is below.

Image found here.

An article about the Asotin Complex Fire from KREM News (Spokane) can be found below:

https://www.krem.com/article/news/local/wildfire/300-acre-asotin-complex-fire-threatens-homes-no-evacuations-in-place/293-2d4b2f49-d056-42ae-a0f8-b808cf693e16

The location of the Asotin Complex Fire is below.

Moses Lake (top left) and the Tri Cities (bottom left), along with Walla Walla, Pullman, and Moscow & Lewiston, ID, are on the map for reference.

Asotin Complex Fire Forecast: (from Weather Underground)

Highs of 100-106 are likely, with humidity of 10-40% and no rain in sight. Winds will generally be under 15 mph.

You can follow along with wildfires across Washington State at the links below.

WA DNR Fire Map: http://fireinfo.dnr.wa.gov/

WA DNR Wildfires Twitter: https://twitter.com/waDNR_fire

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On July 6th (Tuesday), Governor Inslee issued a wildfire state of emergency, effective until September 30th.

One impact of this order is that it mobilizes the Washington State National Guard to help fight fires (a good thing). However, the biggest impact will be major restrictions on burning.

This graphic from Washington State Parks shows burn ban levels. 

There is currently a Level 3 (orange) burn ban in effect. This prohibits all fires except gas/propane stoves & gas/propane portable fire pits. This is in effect for all state parks, all WA national forest land, and most ocean beaches.

The state of emergency itself provides a blanket statement saying that most outdoor/agricultural burning is prohibited. The news release from the Governor's Office is below. (Click to enlarge).

Washington isn't alone in the effort to fight increasing numbers of wildfires. Below is a map from MyRadar Weather showing active wildfires in the Western US.

The amount of fires on the map is staggering. And fire season is only just beginning.

Expect a long summer of wildfires. Stay tuned.