Massive fires in the Northwest of the US.

[ZNP]

Wildfire Evacuation in Spokane, Washington! Massive Fire Destroys Home after Home, People Trapped​

A fast-moving wildfire has exploded across Spokane, Washington, forcing thousands to evacuate as flames jump the Spokane River and tear through residential neighborhoods. The Old Trails Fire has burned over 3,000 acres in hours, destroying homes and prompting a state of emergency, National Guard deployment, and mass Level 3 evacuations.

 

[ZNP]

Spokane Wildfire Turns Catastrophic | 3,500+ Acres Burned, Homes Destroyed &Thousands Evacuated​

Spokane is a city with a population of 600,000 in the metropolitan area.

 

[ZNP]

Spokane's 3 Major Fires Spread Fast | 640 Structures Destroyed, 60,000 Evacuated​

 

[ZNP]

BY TOMORROW THIS WILL BE CATASTROPHICk​

 

[ZNP]

A Fire 20x Bigger Than Spokane's Is Burning And Nobody's Covering It - Zero Percent Contained !​

 

[ZNP]

Comparing forest fires in the US this year with previous years

Current 2026 totals

• 5,253,328 acres burned year-to-date as of August 5, 2026, per NIFC's official Incident Management Situation Report. National Interagency Fire Center
• That's well above the 10-year, year-to-date average of about 3.8 million acres, with 102 large wildfires actively burning across 15 states as of August 3. Yahoo!
• Oregon is the hardest-hit state this year, with 33 major fires burning across a reported 1.8 million acres, and multiple uncontained fires near Spokane, Washington are also straining resources. Yahoo!
• NIFC raised the National Preparedness Level to 5 — the highest possible — on July 18, which is unusually early in the season for that designation to be issued. National Interagency Fire Center
• Drought is a major driver: over one-quarter of US land area, including nearly half of the Western US, is in severe drought or worse. National Interagency Fire Center

How 2026 compares to recent years (full-year totals for context)

• 2025: 5.1 million acres Firerisk
• 2024: 8.9 million acres Firerisk
• 2023: 2.7 million acres Firerisk
• 2022: 7.6 million acres Firerisk
• 2021: 7.1 million acres Firerisk
• 2020: 10.1 million acres (a record year, driven largely by California) Firerisk

Bottom line: 2026 has already burned through more acreage by August 5 than all of 2025 did in a full year, and it's tracking meaningfully above the 10-year seasonal average with peak fire season (August–September) still ahead. It's not yet at 2020- or 2024-level pace, but the early PL5 designation and Oregon's situation in particular suggest this could end up among the more severe seasons of the past decade rather than a moderate one like 2023.

One caveat: a couple of sources gave slightly different acreage figures (one NIFC-linked outlook document cited "over 6 million acres" as of July 31), likely reflecting different reporting cutoffs or methodologies. I've led with NIFC's official situation-report number (5,253,328 acres) as the most authoritative current figure.

 

[ZNP]

Here's what I found for wildfire evacuations across these four regions over roughly the past month (mid-July–August 10, 2026). Note these are a patchwork of reported figures from different fires/dates since no single agency tracks a unified running total — I've used the most recent/comprehensive figure for each region.

Estimated evacuees, past ~30 days​

Oregon — ~25,000+
Oregon has had a historic fire season (over 2 million acres burned, breaking the state's annual record just three days into August). Evacuation orders climbed steadily through the month: ~1,000 people (July 21) → 6,000 under Level 3 "Go Now" orders (July 28) → more than 25,000 Oregonians under some kind of evacuation orders, with the largest evacuation areas in Crook and Wheeler counties in Central Oregon and in Harney and Malheur counties in the southeast (Aug 1–2). Wikipedia


Washington — ~60,000–65,000
Almost entirely driven by one event: the Spokane Complex fires. The fires forced the evacuations of roughly 65,000 people in the Spokane area, officials said, and destroyed at least 700 buildings while forcing 64,000 people to evacuate. Spokane Police Chief Kevin Hall said over 10,000 residences were evacuated. NPR + 2


California — ~6,000–7,000 (from named events; likely higher statewide)

• Little Fire, Sunol/Pleasanton (July 22): more than 4,800 residents in Pleasanton were ordered to evacuate, though by that evening the area covered had shrunk to three zones. Wikipedia
• Gann Fire, Calaveras County (early Aug): the fire forced evacuation for 1,473 residents, with another 1,400 under evacuation warnings. UDPOWER
• Rock Fire, Inyo County (late July): multiple zones ordered evacuated, but no published headcount.
  California's overall fire activity has actually been below average this year — 102,918 acres burned statewide as of mid-July, about 43.5% fewer acres than the same period in 2025 — so it's the smallest contributor of the four. CA

British Columbia — ~21,700
According to the province, roughly 21,700 people are currently displaced from their homes across B.C., with an additional 9,700 on evacuation alert, driven mainly by the Bald Range fire. The Bald Range wildfire triggered the largest evacuation event so far this summer, with more than 20,000 people across B.C. forced to evacuate, and the entire community of Summerland, home to about 12,000 people, was ordered evacuated overnight, along with about 8,000 people in and around nearby Peachland. CNBC + 2

Rough combined total: ~115,000–120,000 people​

A few important caveats: these numbers overlap in time but aren't from a single clean count — some people evacuated more than once as new fires erupted, some have since returned home, and smaller/rural evacuations often don't get an official tally at all. So treat this as a reasonable order-of-magnitude estimate rather than a precise census. Washington's Spokane Complex is clearly the single largest driver, followed by B.C.'s Bald Range fire.

 

[ZNP]

National Context (US)​

As of August 11: 46,305 fires, 6.42 million acres burned — that's 126% of the 10-year average for number of fires and 156% of the 10-year average for acres burned. National Preparedness Level is at PL5, the highest tier, meaning firefighting resources are stretched thin nationwide.

State/Province Breakdown​

Oregon — the epicenter this year
Roughly 2.0 million acres burned as of Aug 10, already closing in on (and likely to surpass) the 2024 record of 1.93–2.08 million acres, which was itself Oregon's worst season on record. This is running dramatically above typical seasonal pace.


Washington — most destructive fire event in state history
The Spokane Complex (Old Trails, Autumn Lane, Fairview fires), which broke out Aug 1, has destroyed 700+ structures and forced 65,000+ evacuations — officials are calling it the most destructive wildfire event in Washington's history. Statewide, acreage is smaller than Oregon's but the human/structural toll is severe.


British Columbia
~389,000 hectares (~961,000 acres) burned as of Aug 10 across 901 fires. Not record-pace compared to 2023 (2.84M ha) or 2024 (1.08M ha), but the fast-moving Bald Range Fire near Summerland triggered 20,000+ evacuations and a provincial state of emergency on Aug 8.


Utah
300,000+ acres burned across roughly a dozen active fires as of Aug 9. Gov. Cox called conditions "catastrophic"; the Widemouth 2 Fire near Fillmore is threatening hundreds of homes with active evacuations.


Nevada
The Bug Fire and Fred Mountain Fire near Reno have burned a combined ~40,300 acres, forcing thousands to evacuate. The nearby Stallion Fire has added another ~20,000 acres.


Wyoming
Comparatively quieter — largest named fires (Porcupine Creek, Sandpiper) are in the 2,000–6,000 acre range. Porcupine Creek prompted evacuations near Wright.


Montana
Running well below its own 10-year average so far — about 41,000 acres statewide (largest active fire, Silvertip, is ~4,100 acres). 2025 was also a light year (76,000 acres, 4th-lowest in 15 years). Forecasters warn conditions could deteriorate through August–September.


California
This is the one gap — the last comprehensive statewide tally I can find is stale (~54,000 acres, from a May snapshot), and CAL FIRE's official 2026 total isn't clean yet. What's clear from recent, active incidents: the Timber Fire in Big Sur (~3,000 acres, growing) and the Woodside Fire in Sonoma County (4 structures destroyed) are the notable current events. Relative to Oregon/Washington, California's season has been comparatively muted so far, but I'd treat any single statewide acreage number for CA right now with caution.

Bottom line​

This is a genuinely severe regional season, but the intensity is very unevenly distributed: Oregon is having a historic, possibly record-breaking year; Washington has suffered the most destructive single fire event in its history (Spokane); Utah and Nevada are in acute active crises; BC is elevated but not record-setting; and Montana and Wyoming are running near or below normal. Total human impact across the region right now is at minimum 150,000+ people evacuated and 700+ structures confirmed destroyed (concentrated almost entirely in the Spokane fires), with several other active evacuations still unresolved.

 

[ZNP]

Midwest derecho — confirmed and significant
A rare derecho tore across Iowa → northern Illinois → Indiana → Ohio on Tuesday, Aug 11, with gusts up to 99 mph (measured at Gary, Indiana). It spawned at least six tornadoes and left more than 800,000 without power by Wednesday morning, from Indiana to Ohio, with a car flipped by suspected tornado winds on I-71 in Columbus. NWS Storm Prediction Center confirmed it met derecho criteria (250+ mile damage swath, 58+ mph sustained gusts). At least three deaths have been attributed to the storm system as of Wednesday. AccuWeather + 3


Eastern/Ohio Valley flooding — directly tied to the derecho system, still unfolding
The same storm complex has now produced multi-day catastrophic flooding, primarily in Indiana. As of early Thursday (today): the Midwest is facing a fourth consecutive day of flooding after "catastrophic" flooding in Indiana, with at least four rivers in eastern Indiana forecast to reach major flood stage into Thursday. Nearly 275,000 homes and businesses remain without power in Indiana, and just over half a million across the Ohio Valley. Cambridge City, Indiana reported flooding severe enough that officials warned residents to prepare for extended utility outages. More flooding risk is expected Thursday across Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, with saturated ground making new rainfall more dangerous. This isn't a separate "eastern floods" event distinct from the derecho — it's the same system's rainfall/river-response phase, still active right now. KRDO + 3


Western wildfires
As of the weekend (Aug 9), there were 183 new wildfires including eight large ones across the US since Saturday, per the National Interagency Fire Center, with evacuation orders in place across the West and Southwest Canada amid hot, dry conditions. More than 30,000 personnel and 640+ crews were assigned. Washington (Spokane-area fires) and Utah (Fishlake National Forest, where two helicopter pilots died fighting a wildfire) have been hardest-hit US states; the largest evacuations (20,000+ people) have actually been in British Columbia, Canada. Year-to-date national total stands at 46,509 wildfires burning more than 6.4 million acres, 126% and 155% of the 10-year averages respectively.

 

[Kroogz]

Got to love the Government Huh?

Loggers did a great job to contain fires and manage the forest. There used to be a mill in about every town in western Montana and the mountains crawled with hard working loggers. These guys KNEW how to manage their LIVELY HOOD. Now the mills and loggers are gone.........The REAL hero's, that put fires out and did real management.

Now the government boys need fires and paychecks to keep going.

 

[gb9]

Got to love the Government Huh?

Loggers did a great job to contain fires and manage the forest. There used to be a mill in about every town in western Montana and the mountains crawled with hard working loggers. These guys KNEW how to manage their LIVELY HOOD. Now the mills and loggers are gone.........The REAL hero's, that put fires out and did real management.

Now the government boys need fires and paychecks to keep going.

sad that so many of these fires could be prevented if simple forest management was preformed.

but, gov. red tape, silly environment regulations etc... will not let that happen...

 

[ZNP]

BTW there are floods, droughts, and earthquakes in other parts of the world

United States (mostly subnational, disaster-driven)

• Nevada — state of emergency for Washoe County/Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Bug and Fred Mountain Fires (declared Aug 10, in effect through Aug 17)
• Illinois — Bloomington declared a local state of emergency after storm damage (Aug 13)
• North Carolina — Mount Airy/Surry County, flash flooding (Aug 2)
• California — Suisun City declared a state of emergency after a cyberattack disrupted public safety systems (Aug 7–8)
• Washington State — statewide wildfire emergency remains active (declared Aug 1, still open)
• New York City — Mayor extended an existing emergency executive order (Aug 8 order, extended again days later)
• Several other states (CA, others) have standing open proclamations unrelated to this week specifically

Canada

• British Columbia — provincial state of emergency declared Aug 8 as 100+ wildfires burned, 20,000+ evacuated (Bald Range fire); District of Summerland also declared its own local emergency the same night

Europe

• No new national-level formal states of emergency turned up this week specifically. Spain had already stood down its Madrid/Ávila regional emergency status in late July/early August, though wildfires continue in León, Crete, mainland Greece, and Turkey's coasts, with the EU's rescEU firefighting fleet still deployed across a dozen countries. Local/regional civil-protection activations continue but I didn't find a fresh national declaration this week.

China

• China doesn't formally declare "states of emergency" the way Western governments do — it uses a tiered emergency-response system. This week that system was heavily activated for Typhoon Dolphin: national flood response raised to Level III (Aug 7), Zhejiang and Fujian upgraded to Level III, the national meteorological/geological disaster response raised to Level II, and a Level IV geological-disaster response activated for Hebei, Henan, and Hubei (Aug 10) after record rainfall.

Middle East

• Israel's nationwide state of emergency (declared Feb 28, 2026, tied to the Israel–Iran conflict) appears to remain formally in effect, but I didn't find a new Mideast declaration specifically dated this past week. Given the Iran/Hormuz situation and the water-infrastructure cyberattacks you're already tracking as an FL2 signal in the Hobab framework, I'd treat that as ongoing rather than a fresh trigger this week — let me know if you want me to check for anything more recent there specifically.

Elsewhere

• Colombia — President declared a state of economic emergency (Aug 13) after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake killed at least 265 people.

 

[ZNP]

Flames Reach Croatia’s Rooftops! Europe Burns As Greece, France, Germany Evacuate Thousands | VERTEX

 

[ZNP]

Oregon Breaks Wildfire Record: 6,308-Acre Day at Mt. Hood | Red Flag Warning & Dry Lightning​

 

[ZNP]

Indiana & Illinois Flood Disaster | 1-in-1,000-Year Rainfall, 3 Dead & 700,000 Still Without Power​

 

[LoProfile]

Lots of fires here in Northern Nevada as well
Coincidence .... The biggest is right along a road going straight up to where the Oregon fires are located.
So far only 9 homes here in NV have been lost, thousands more have needed to evacuate including a few friends.

 

[ZNP]

No Warning? 3 Dams Opened At Once! Henan Flood Swallowed Villages, 2,000+ People Forced To Escape​

 

[ZNP]

Wildfire Nightmare in Croatia as Strong Winds Send Flames Toward Omis Homes​

 

[ZNP]

 

[HealthAndHappiness]

All of the large and wealthy countries can and do hire weather modification companies. China openly announced it way back at the Olympics. They can make it rain to put out fires and smoke.
They can diminish the power of storms and vice versa.
Tax payers lives and property don't seem to be a priority.