Air Quality & Wildfire News — August 5, 2026

Most of today's news comes from the Northwest, where a dry winter and an early snowmelt have set up a fire season that is already breaking records — and where the smoke from it is settling into valleys and staying put.

Oregon has already broken its annual wildfire record

Three days into August, Oregon has passed its annual wildfire record with more than 2 million acres burned across more than 40 fires, The Oregonian reports. Twenty-one of the state's 36 counties are on the emergency drought list, meaning 88% of Oregon is dangerously dry.

State officials trace the dryness to one of Oregon's warmest winters on record and a historically low snowpack that is melting weeks earlier than usual. Dry vegetation makes fires easier to start and faster to spread, and with roughly two months of fire season left, the acreage total is expected to keep climbing.

Smoke is stuck over Coeur d'Alene and Missoula

Coeur d'Alene residents woke Tuesday to an air quality index of 166 — "unhealthy" — before it improved to 90 by early afternoon, the Coeur d'Alene Press reports. Idaho DEQ airshed coordinator Emily Flores said that morning-and-evening pattern, caused by an inversion trapping cool air under warm air, should hold until Friday. The local forecast calls for 145 Wednesday, 155 Thursday and 140 Friday.

The National Weather Service in Spokane expects little relief: low winds, humidity between 8% and 10%, and a near-zero chance of rain through the weekend. Fires in the Spokane area have burned over 10,000 acres and destroyed more than 700 buildings. In Montana, the Missoulian reports that Missoula's smoke is likewise not expected to improve for several days as wind keeps pushing it into the valley.

When smoke settles overnight and lifts in the afternoon, the cleanest air is usually mid-day — worth knowing if you're deciding when to open windows or go for a walk.

Salem's Night Out moved indoors

Salem's air quality index hit 177 on Tuesday, and police departments in Salem and Keizer, the Marion County Sheriff's Office and several Mid-Valley neighborhoods canceled their outdoor National Night Out events because of the smoke, the Statesman Journal reports.

One neighborhood carried on indoors. About 60 people gathered at First Free Will Baptist Church, where the East Lancaster Neighborhood Association had air conditioning and space. "We decided, since we had access to the air conditioning and the church and the space, we would go ahead and see what happened," association co-chair Susann Kaltwasser said.

A British Columbia fire destroyed about 230 homes

The Bradley Creek wildfire destroyed roughly 230 homes in an Okanagan Indian Band reserve community near Vernon, British Columbia, about 275 miles northeast of Vancouver, the AP reports. "It was hard to recognize my community from the air with all the structures and the forest gone," said Chief Dan Wilson, who surveyed the damage by helicopter.

It ranks among Canada's most destructive recent fires, alongside the 2024 Jasper, Alberta blaze that destroyed about 350 homes and the 2023 McDougall Creek fire in the same Okanagan region, which destroyed about 200. Smoke from Canadian fires has repeatedly spread across North America in recent years and triggered air-quality alerts far from the flames.

California utilities press lawmakers on wildfire liability

Executives at California's two largest utilities have warned they will act to protect shareholders if state lawmakers do not pass legislation limiting their liability for fires sparked by their equipment, the Los Angeles Times reports. "If the legislature does not act, or if they act and don't actually solve the problem, then we're going to have to take action," PG&E chief executive Patti Poppe told analysts on a July 23 call.

The comments landed as the Legislature returned from summer break for the final four weeks of its session. On Tuesday, government fire officials released their investigation into last year's Eaton fire, blaming an Edison transmission line that had not carried power since 1971 but was left in place.

Sources

• Drought has helped turn Oregon into a tinderbox as state moves into 'water scarcity' era — The Oregonian
• Air quality expected to improve by weekend — Coeur d'Alene Press
• Missoula smoke conditions not expected to improve for days — Missoula Missoulian
• Salem neighborhood, undeterred by smoke, keeps National Night Out alive — Salem Statesman Journal
• Wildfire destroys about 230 homes in western Canadian Indigenous community, officials say — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• Utilities threaten action if lawmakers fail to cut their wildfire liability risk — Los Angeles Times

Canairy aggregates publicly reported air-quality and wildfire news and summarizes it in plain English, with links to the original sources. This is educational information, not medical or emergency advice. In a wildfire or air-quality emergency, follow guidance from local authorities.