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Dry thunderstorms that popped up over the Cascade Range on the evening of July 15, 2026, peppered Oregon and Washington with thousands of lightning strikes as they moved east across the states. By the following day, NASA satellites had begun to detect large numbers of wildland fires burning throughout central and eastern Oregon.
Though initially small, these blazes strengthened as they were fanned by gusty winds and raced through landscapes parched by extreme drought and baking in summer heat. When NASA’s Aqua satellite captured the image shown above on the afternoon of July 26, smoke poured northeast from dozens of large fires that had collectively charred hundreds of square miles. The fires produced a blanket of haze, prompting state officials to issue air quality advisories for eastern Oregon.
Many communities faced evacuation orders as more than 10,000 firefighters battled wildfires throughout the state. On the day the image was captured, the largest active fires were the Hay Creek Complex, Brewer, Big Grass, Akawa Butte, and Powder River fires. Several of these blazes were less than 5 percent contained, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. State officials invoked Oregon’s Emergency Conflagration Act to protect communities as they responded to particularly threatening fires such as the Shingle, Bench, Beachcomb, and Second Flat fires.
Government satellite data are part of a global system of observations used to track fire behavior and analyze emerging trends. Among the real-time wildfire monitoring tools that NASA makes available are FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System), the Worldview browser, and the Fire Event Explorer.
As of July 27, 2026, fires in Oregon had burned more than one million acres, according to news outlets. Meanwhile, the National Interagency Fire Center reported that fires had burned more than 4 million acres across the United States. The 10-year average (2016-2025) for this point in the season is 3.4 million acres.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Adam Voiland.
References & Resources
- Central Oregon Fire Info (2026, July 27) The Source For Comprehensive Fire, Health, And Air Quality Information In Central Oregon. Accessed July 27, 2026.
- KGW8 (2026, July 27) Latest updates on Oregon wildfires: Fires burn more than 1 million acres across the state. Accessed July 27, 2026.
- NASA Earthdata (2026) Wildfires. Accessed July 27, 2026.
- National Interagency Fire Center (2026) Oregon. Accessed July 27, 2026.
- Northwest Interagency Coordination Center (2026, July 27) Official Fire Information. Accessed July 27, 2026.
- OPB (2026, July 27) Oregon wildfires explode over weekend with no signs of slowing down. Accessed July 27, 2026.
- Oregon State Fire Marshal (2026, July 27) OSFM Wildfire Info. Accessed July 27, 2026.
- Oregon.gov (2026, July 26) Current wildfire info. Accessed July 27, 2026.
- Oregon Smoke Information (2026, July 27) Air quality advisory for Eastern Oregon and parts of Central Oregon. Accessed July 27, 2026.
- Oregon Department of Forestry (2026, July 27) Latest News. Accessed July 27, 2026.
- U.S. Drought Monitor (2026, July 21) Oregon. Accessed July 27, 2026.
