2026 wildfire season: air quality in review

While some localized smoke impacts from fires in the Cascades are still lingering, recent wet and cool weather has helped wind down this summer's wildfire season. Looking back at air monitoring data, most areas of the state experienced at least one day of air quality that was "unhealthy for sensitive groups" (USG) or worse this summer. USG is a category on the Air Quality Index (AQI), which is on the right of the plot below.

Coastal areas were the main exception, largely avoiding periods of unhealthy air quality. Central and Northeast Washington observed the most prolonged and extreme smoke impacts, largely due to their proximity to the season's largest fires.

It was an especially smoky year for Chelan and Okanogan counties, as well as several counties in Northeastern Washington.

In the plot below, the black bars represent each county's number of days with USG or worse air quality this year. The grey bars show each county's highest number of smoky days (USG or worse) before 2026, with the year listed above each bar. While smoke is not unusual during Eastern Washington summers, a few counties saw their highest smoke exposure over the past 20 years.

Prescribed burn season starting

Learn more about where Washington Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) prescribed fires will be taking place and why. You can also visit DNR's burn portal to check out the calendar of upcoming burns and sign up for their notifications to be alerted when a burn is happening near you.

Although prescribed burns are planned carefully to protect local air quality, it is still important to be aware of how smoky conditions may affect your health.

You can find smoke resources to help prepare for future smoke events. If you're reading this in the off-season, bookmark the Washington Smoke Blog and come back in June when we start gearing up again to share seasonal smoke information.