Wildfire smoke from destructive fires in Washington state is keeping air quality poor across the West on Monday, with Spokane facing very dangerous conditions as the haze spreads through the region. The smoke is expected to linger even after fire weather conditions improved across the Pacific Northwest.
That is why people searching for air quality in Portland are seeing the same regional warning. The smoke is not tied to one city, and poor air quality will continue while the fires burn and dry conditions remain in place. Monday's concern is immediate: the air is already being affected across a broad stretch of the West, and Spokane is expected to be hit hardest.
The fires broke out over the weekend near Spokane, Washington, after very strong winds combined with extremely dry conditions turned fast-moving flames into a regional emergency. The Federal Emergency Management Agency authorized federal funds on Sunday to help battle several fires, including the Autumn Lane Fire in Spokane County. By 11 p.m. on Sunday, that fire was still zero percent contained, and the Autumn Lane Fire, the Old Trails fire and the Fairview fire were burning at about 7,708 acres.
Those three fires, now being called the Spokane Complex Fire, had destroyed or damaged at least 600 structures, including homes. Bob Ferguson was at a command center in Spokane on Sunday and urged people to stay vigilant if they were in those areas. His warning matched the scale of the damage already done and the fact that all three fires had ignited on Saturday afternoon.
The part that matters for readers beyond Washington is the friction between better weather and worse air. Widespread and very strong wind and extreme fire danger has subsided, but poor air quality will continue because the smoke is already in the atmosphere and conditions remain very dry. The fire danger has shifted farther east across the Intermountain West and Plains, where several states from Montana to Nebraska are under Red Flag Warnings because of strong winds and low humidity.
This smoke episode is unfolding against a larger drought and heat backdrop across the West. More than two thirds of the region continues to experience drought of varying intensity, and in Oregon more than half of the state is facing severe drought conditions while roughly 20% is under extreme drought. Wildfires have already burned more than 1.7 million acres in Oregon this season, and at least 32 uncontained large wildfires are still burning there, after a record 1.93 million acres burned in 2024.
Extreme and record heat continued all weekend across the West, and while Monday is to be cooler across the Northwest and Northern Rockies, the heat is expected to persist across the Southwest and Central and Southern Rockies. Extreme heat warnings remain in place for Phoenix, Las Vegas and Palm Springs, where temperatures are expected to reach 110 to 115 this week. Denver could reach 100 degrees Monday, and Albuquerque could also hit a daily record high of 102. For now, the immediate answer for Portland and much of the West is simple: the smoke is not gone, and the air will stay poor into Monday.
