File:Scorching Western Fire Season Continues (MODIS 2021-08-25).jpg

English: A wild and wicked western wildfire season continued through late August 2021 as dozens of fires charred the landscape and pumped heavy smoke into the atmosphere. Although rainfall in Washington, Idaho, and Montana over the last week has helped drop the number of blazes in those states, hot, dry weather and heavy winds kept Southern Oregon and Northern California under siege.

On August 24, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite captured a true-color scene of fire and smoke across the Western United States. Each red “hot spot” marks an area where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures. When combined with typical smoke, as in this image, such hot spots are diagnostic for actively burning fire.

While several hot spots are scattered across the region, the largest fires—which are also the largest smoke producers—are located in California. According to CAL FIRE, as of the morning of August 24, over 14,100 firefighters remain on the frontlines of 12 active large wildfires that have burned over 1.54 million acres. Wildfire Today reported that the largest producers of smoke in California include Monument, River, McCash, Antelope, Dixie, and Caldor.

The most southerly of the large fires, sitting east of Sacramento and close to the Nevada border, is the Caldor Fire. Though initially small, the fire exploded in size on August 16 as winds picked up, forcing thousands of people from their homes and destroying much of the town of Grizzly Flats. As of the evening of August 24, it had grown to 122,980 acres and had reached 11 percent containment, according to Cal Fire.

The largest fire is the Dixie Fire. It ignited on July 13, according to InciWeb Incident Information System above the Cresta Dam, Feather River Canyon. It is burning on the Plumas National Forest, Lassen National Forest, Lassen Volcanic National Park, and in four counties: Butte, Lassen, Plumas, and Tehama. As of the evening of August 24, it has burned 733,475 acres and is 43 percent contained. InciWeb notes that the Dixie Fire has resulted in structure damage, evacuation orders, and evacuation warnings. Many roads are closed, as are the national forests. Air quality in the nearby communities has been unhealthy due to smoke. The Dixie Fire has claimed the title of the second-largest fire recorded in California, second only to the August Complex of fires which burned 1,033,648 acres in August of 2020. The cause of both the August Complex and the Dixie Fire remain under investigation.