{"id":71727,"date":"2026-08-06T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=71727"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:37:22","slug":"one-week-of-pacific-northwest-wildfire-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/71727","title":{"rendered":"One week of Pacific Northwest wildfire activity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260731_260806_goes18_trueColorRGB_nighttimeMicrophysicsRGB_Pacific_NW_wildfires.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>5-minute GOES-18 daytime True Color RGB and Nighttime Microphysics RGB images, from 0001 UTC on 31 July to 2356 UTC on 06 August<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-18 <em>(GOES-West)<\/em> daytime True Color RGB and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/QuickGuide_GOESR_NtMicroRGB_Final_20191206_acc.pdf\">Nighttime Microphysics RGB<\/a><\/strong> images spanning the 7-day period from <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov\/dailywxmap\/index_20260731.html\">31 July<\/a><\/strong> to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov\/dailywxmap\/index_20260806.html\">06 August 2026<\/a><\/strong> <strong><em>(above<\/em>)<\/strong> showed numerous dense smoke plumes emanating from active wildfires, along with widespread residual smoke from previous days of wildfire activity across much of the Pacific Northwest. At night, thermal anomalies associated with active wildfires (clusters of purple pixels) were evident. Note that a few of the larger and more dense smoke plumes exhibited shades of magenta after sunset &#8212; an indication that some blowing dust was intermingled with the smoke, which had been lofted by the strong surface winds that were a factor in rapid wildfire growth (the Red component of the Nighttime Microphysics RGB is this <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/OCLOFactSheetPDFs\/ABIQuickGuide_SplitWindowDifference.pdf\">Split Window Difference<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Much of the Northwest US had been experiencing Moderate to Exceptional Drought during that particular week <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260804_west_drought_monitor.png\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Drought conditions across the western US on 04 August<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) daytime True Color RGB and Nighttime Microphysics RGB images spanning the 7-day period from 31 July to 06 August 2026 (above) showed numerous dense smoke plumes emanating from active wildfires, along with widespread residual smoke from previous days of wildfire activity across much of the Pacific Northwest. At night, thermal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":71728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6,114,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air-quality","category-fire-detection","category-goes-18","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71727"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71738,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71727\/revisions\/71738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}