The last 24 hours
The house is still inside the Level 1 "Get Ready" zone, unchanged since the Aug 15 redraw. No Little Giant zone was edited this cycle — Level 2 "Get Set" holds at 2.0 mi NNE and Level 3 "Go Now" at 3.7 mi NNE, both exactly where they've sat since Aug 16. Worth remembering: these planning zones already reach the house, well ahead of the fire itself, which remains several miles out.
The GIS perimeter refreshed to Aug 19, 6:10 AM PDT: 137,294 acres, 10% contained, up 1,309 acres (about 1%) from last night, with containment flat. InciWeb's Aug 18, 9:07 AM update still carries the older 135,985 acres, 10% figure — more than 24 hours stale against the mapped layer now — so per the reconciliation rule the newer GIS figure above is working current. The nearest perimeter edge closed to 6.8 mi N, in 0.2 mi from 7.0 mi last night.
The pending item carries over for a third day: the Chelan County evacuation-zone page is still sitting on its Aug 17, 3:30–3:42 PM revision describing a Level 3 expansion in the Chiwawa River area ("extends south to the Deep Creek and Lower Chiwawa River Road intersection"). The mapped Level 3 zone's last edit remains Aug 16, 3:21 PM PDT — no newer timestamp — so this narrative change is now more than 40 hours out from the county's own post without appearing in the source that actually sets the brief's boundaries.
VIIRS logged 710 detections region-wide in 24 hours; nearest is 6.7 mi
N, 5 hours old. One new item: a heat cluster at 6.3 mi N, 7
detections, all from today only (persistent: false, max FRP 11.72) —
flagged UNVERIFIED. It's the closest near-Plain detection logged
since tracking began, sitting just south of the established persistent
cluster at 6.4 mi N. Nothing in today's sweep (InciWeb, Lake Chelan Now,
the Chelan County EM page, wasmoke.blogspot.com, and a general search for
Aug 19 developments) confirms or explains it; the established persistent
cluster at 6.5 mi NNE continued building, now 40 detections over 3 days,
up from 21 over 2. lakewenatcheeinfo.com again returned no usable content
(recurring bot-check gap).
Fire weather
Mostly favorable, with one soft spot: NW 2–6 mph today, easing into a light N 6 mph tonight — a brief northerly component down toward the Chiwawa/White River drainages, the direction that matters for Plain, but weak — then back to NW 1–5 mph Thursday. No Red Flag Warning. The weekend forecast brings a real thunderstorm chance Saturday (50% showers and storms), worth watching for outflow when it arrives.
Air quality
Improved sharply: modeled AQI 63 (down from 78 last evening), PM2.5 17 µg/m³ (down from 21.9). The NWS Spokane Air Quality Alert issued Aug 18 remains in effect only through 2:00 PM PDT today — whether it's renewed this afternoon is worth a glance, since smoke has resettled overnight on other days this cycle.
Roads: no blocks logged.
What I'd watch
- The 6.3 mi N heat cluster's second day. If tomorrow's pass shows continued detections there, it graduates from a possible new start to persistent fire-edge activity, consistent with the neighboring cluster's pattern; if it doesn't recur, it was likely a single burnout-related flare.
- The Chiwawa Level 3 expansion, now 40+ hours pending. Either the mapped zone layer catches up to the county's Aug 17 description, or the county's page itself should have moved on by the next cycle — two full days of silence on both sides is unusual.
- Tonight's light north wind. A 6 mph land-breeze overnight is normal and not cause for concern on its own, but it's the only northerly component in an otherwise westerly week — confirm it doesn't strengthen or persist into tomorrow morning.