Wildfire — East Slopes Northern Cascades, Washington

2018-08-11 to 2018-08-31 · East Slopes Northern Cascades, Washington

Event narrative

The McCleod Wildfire 10 miles north of Mazama was started by lightning and first reported on August 11th. The fire grew to 24,411 acres, consuming mostly timber in unpopulated mountainous terrain before being largely contained by mid September. No structures were lost but some back country roads were closed. The cost of fighting the fire was calculated at 13.1 million dollars.

Wider weather episode

Very dry conditions over Eastern Washington during July and August created dry fuel conditions across the region. Scattered dry thunderstorms moving through the region during the morning of August 11th triggered an estimated 20 new fire starts in the mountains north of Twisp. Many of these small fires merged into on large conflagration lasting through the remainder of August and requiring considerable state and federal resources to contain. These fires were generally in unpopulated forest land with no structures or homes lost. Smoke from these fires and fires in surrounding states and provinces often severely degraded air quality across eastern Washington during the month of August.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 775997. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.