How long did the Lyons Ferry fire last?

It burned between 16 July 2026 and 16 July 2026: 1 day, according to the start date recorded by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) and the heat detections seen by satellite.

How much area did it burn?

The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 13,731 hectares (137.3 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.

Which counties burned?

The fire entered 4 counties: Whitman (10,195 ha, 1.8 %); Franklin (3,529 ha, 1.1 %); Walla Walla (9 ha, 0.0 %); Adams (0 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the official burnt perimeter of United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC, public domain), NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United States. It is not an official report.

US · United States · 2026-07-16 → 2026-07-16

Lyons Ferry Fire, July 2026 Whitman, Franklin, Walla Walla

Out · last detection 17 Jul 2026, 20:51 UTC

The fire started on 16 July 2026 in Whitman, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 13,731 hectares, spread across 4 counties.

It is the 32th largest in Washington since 2016 (of 285 with a page). Number 45 in United States in 2026, of 423.

Burnt area: 13,731ha; official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration: 1day; 16 Jul 2026 – 16 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit: 4; counties
Started on: 16 Jul; 2026
Heat detections: 288; in a single hotspot: 70 MW
Danger at start: 35; High · FWI index
Energy released: 3.4GW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jul16 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high

27km/h · peak gust

20%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Whitman where it started

10,195 ha reached on 17 Jul

1.8 %
Franklin

3,529 ha reached on 17 Jul

1.1 %
Walla Walla

9 ha

0.0 %
Adams

0 ha reached on 17 Jul

0.0 %

Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
16 Jul	35.8 °C	20 %	27 km/h	0.6 mm	High 35
17 Jul after	32.0 °C	14 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
18 Jul after	32.8 °C	10 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
19 Jul after	31.5 °C	15 %	15 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
20 Jul after	34.3 °C	12 %	12 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
21 Jul after	35.8 °C	12 %	9 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
22 Jul after	38.0 °C	12 %	10 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
23 Jul after	37.3 °C	20 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
24 Jul after	35.8 °C	15 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
25 Jul after	33.8 °C	19 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 77
26 Jul after	31.0 °C	16 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 9 Jul 2026

After · 23 Jul 2026

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 18 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 141 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 64: 4.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak141 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM10145 µg/m³

Optical depth1.25

WHO 15

141516171819202122

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 288Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lyons Ferry fire last?: It burned between 16 July 2026 and 16 July 2026: 1 day, according to the start date recorded by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) and the heat detections seen by satellite.
How much area did it burn?: The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 13,731 hectares (137.3 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?: The fire entered 4 counties: Whitman (10,195 ha, 1.8 %); Franklin (3,529 ha, 1.1 %); Walla Walla (9 ha, 0.0 %); Adams (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the official burnt perimeter of United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC, public domain), NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United States. It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 911

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
NIFC · Fire maps ↗

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This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter is official and in the public domain. For past years it comes from MTBS (Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity), run by the U.S. Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service, which map it on Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery. For the current and last year it comes from WFIGS at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC): incident perimeters mapped by fire crews, aircraft and imagery. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. County boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Public Domain). The area per county is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from official figures.

Where it burned