The last 24 hours
At 5:29 AM PDT the Sheriff's office published a new zone: Level 3 "Go Now," 5.1 mi N of the house, closest point 47.8429°N/120.6634°W. It wasn't on yesterday evening's layer at all — this is an addition, not a re-publish of an existing line, and it's the first zone edit within 15 mi since the 9:10 AM touch on Monday. That trips the alert condition; Andrew is being emailed separately. Everything else on the layer holds: Level 1 "Get Ready" at 2.0 mi NNE and Level 3 "Go Now" at 3.7 mi NNE are unchanged since Monday, LG Entiat Level 1 is unchanged at 11.3 mi ENE, and Stehekin Level 1 is unchanged at 39.7 mi N. The reference point stays outside any mapped zone.
The new zone's closest point sits almost due north — the Chiwawa/White River line toward Plain, not the NNE line the fire itself has been approaching from. The fire's own nearest mapped edge is still 5.2 mi NNE, unchanged, per a perimeter dated Sep 1, 7:57 PM PDT (170,645 acres, 49% contained, +5 acres and flat containment since yesterday's run — normal snapshot noise). InciWeb's current-situation report, timestamped Sep 2, 10:00 AM, is newer and shows 170,784 acres, 51% contained, personnel down to 1,912 (from 2,006 Monday) — a step-down in resources alongside a step-up in containment. It also logs "Extreme, Crowning, Long-range Spotting, Uphill Runs" behavior over the prior operational period, tied to morning thunderstorm outflow and an afternoon frontal passage — plausibly what prompted the new zone, though neither InciWeb nor the GIS layer says so explicitly. Fire officials hold a virtual community meeting tonight, Wed, Sept. 2, 6:30 PM (Facebook Live, questions to 2026.LittleGiant@firenet.gov).
lakewenatcheeinfo.com's latest fire post is a week old (Aug 26); Lake Chelan Now has nothing on the fire this cycle; wasmoke.blogspot.com's latest (Aug 31) already called this week's rain. The Chelan County active-emergencies page is blocked from this environment, as usual. Nothing from general search added anything dated today beyond InciWeb's own figures above.
VIIRS logged 126 regional detections in 24h; nearest to the house is 6.4 mi NE, FRP 1.23, 5 hours old. Of 31 near-Plain clusters, 29 are multi-day/persistent — the fire's ongoing NE flank, not new starts. Two are single-day, but both date to Aug 26, over a week stale; nothing crossed into today's window.
What stands between the fire and Plain
North to south: the new Level 3 zone at 5.1 mi N, Level 3 at 3.7 mi NNE, Level 1 at 2.0 mi NNE, then the house. The fire's mapped perimeter itself holds at 5.2 mi NNE. The practical buffer hasn't shrunk — but the county has now drawn a mandatory-evacuation line almost as close as the fire itself, along the drainage this tracker watches for a northerly wind push.
Fire weather
No Red Flag Warning. Wind is favorable today: W 1–5 mph, pushing fire and smoke east, away from Plain. Tonight's wind turns N, ~3 mph — the danger direction down the drainage, but too weak to matter. Thursday brings NW 2 mph. The forecast rain arrives today: 80% chance, high near 68 falling to 63, with showers and thunderstorms — cooler and wetter than any day in the past week, and the reprieve wasmoke.blogspot.com flagged Sunday.
Air quality
AQI 61 (PM2.5 8.5, PM10 8.9) as of 8 AM — Moderate, and well down from Monday's 82–86. NWS's Air Quality Alert expires this morning, Sep 2, 10:00 AM PDT, with nothing yet posted to extend it.
Roads: no blocks logged in the GIS layer.
What I'd watch
- Whether the new 5.1 mi N zone is a genuine push toward Plain or a boundary squaring-off — next run's snapshot should show whether its closest point moves, holds, or gets explained by the county.
- Whether today's rain actually lands and knocks down the persistent NE-flank VIIRS clusters (6–10 mi out, several over 100 FRP) — a real drop in detections and FRP tomorrow would confirm it; unchanged counts would say the rain missed the fire itself.
- Whether tonight's 6:30 PM community meeting addresses the new zone directly — that's the fastest way to learn intent behind the 5:29 AM edit.