Started on Aug 22, 2026.
United States todayLive
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Fire view
Fire view (right): infrared (SWIR), sees through smoke and brings out the heat.
🟢 green = vegetation
🟤 brown = already burned
🟠 orange = fire right now
Drag to compare: normal photo on the left, heat brought out on the right.
Green: vegetationBrown: already burnedOrange: fire right nowSentinel-2 · Copernicus
Red dots: heat detected by satellite in the last 48h. NASA FIRMS
Quick facts
- Location
- 13 miles southeast of Newhalem, WA
- Cause
- Natural
- Complexity
- Type 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Timber (Litter and Understory)
- How it's behaving
- MinimalCreeping — Moves slowly, hugging the ground.Backing — Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.Smoldering — Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.
- Jurisdiction
- NPS · Federal land
Glossary: what each term means
Barely moving. Low, thin smoke.
Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.
Moves slowly, hugging the ground.
Spreads with low, steady flames.
Spreading evenly and steadily, with visible flame.
Fast and unpredictable.
Runs along the ground much faster than a person walks.
Grows along the sides, not head-on.
Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.
Climbs into the treetops and jumps crown to crown. It can't be attacked from the ground.
Climbs into the crowns in bursts and drops back down.
Whole trees flaring up like torches.
Single scattered trees flaring up whole, like torches.
Whole clumps of trees flaring at once.
Wind carries embers through the air and starts new fires ahead of the front: that is how a fire jumps a road or a firebreak.
The wind pushes it in long runs in one direction.
The ones marked ● are the behaviors that make a fire harder to stop. They are not a warning or an instruction: they are the description written by the agency in charge. For decisions, always follow your emergency services.
Burning through timber litter and understory on federal land managed by the National Park Service, the active Thunder Creek Fire in Skagit County, Washington, has steadily expanded over 19 days of activity. Located 13 miles southeast from Newhalem near Marblemount, the incident has grown at an approximate rate of 38 acres per day, reaching 715 acres with zero percent containment. The fire behavior is currently characterized as minimal, creeping, backing, and smoldering.
This incident is being managed as a Type 4 Incident under a Type 4 Incident Commander, with total costs mounting to $150,000. The broader wildfire landscape in the country shows 3,201,049 hectares burned so far in 2026, which sits 42 percent below the two-decade average. This activity occurs within the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October.
In context
This wildfire burned in Washington for 42 days. In total it burned about 715 acres — around 2.9 km².
In the Northern Hemisphere, wildfire activity usually peaks during the warm, dry months — roughly May through October.
The bigger picture in United States
Across United States, roughly 3,366,046 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 39% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
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Community reports
Reports from people near the fire · unverified
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Not official emergency information. In an emergency, contact fire services/authorities.
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