The last 24 hours
The GIS perimeter now reads 172,814 acres, 81% contained (perimeter dated Sep 17, 6:22 AM PDT, under 2 hours old at capture — unusually fresh). That's a 109-acre tick up from last night's 172,705, in normal mapping-noise range for a 172,000-acre fire; containment and the nearest edge (5.2 mi NNE) are unchanged. InciWeb's update, posted Sep 16 at 8:50 PM PDT, carries the same 172,705 acres and 81% containment (a few hours stale against the GIS figure above) with personnel down to 643, from 687 that afternoon — continued demobilization. Fire behavior is described as moderated following recent precipitation: scattered smoldering with limited creeping in duff and exposed surface fuels, with interior heavy fuels still retaining heat and possibly reigniting as drying continues.
The Level 1 "Get Ready" ring that dropped from the Sheriff's live zone layer yesterday afternoon (it had sat 2.0 mi NNE, the closest zone of any kind to the house) has not reappeared this morning — a second consecutive cycle with only two zones on the map: the Level 3 "Go Now" ring at 5.1 mi N (unedited since Sep 3) and the distant Stehekin Level 1 at 39.7 mi N. Neither InciWeb nor the county's active-emergencies page (still showing its Sep 16, 2:30 PM update, unchanged from yesterday) states outright that the ring was lifted, so this stays provisional, but two holding cycles make a data glitch less likely.
VIIRS logged 40 detections region-wide, up from 20, but the nearest sits 41 mi NNW — outside the near-Plain radius and tied to fire activity further north, not Little Giant. The five near-Plain clusters (within 12 mi) show no detection dated later than Sep 11 — the same last-detection dates as the past several briefs, now six days stale — yet three of them (6.1 mi NE, 8.5 mi NNE, 10.1 mi NNE) now come back flagged "unverified" rather than persistent. That's because the upstream layer's own retention window has aged the Sep 9–10 detections that previously established two distinct days at those cells out of the feed, not because of new heat: per the runbook, flagging it UNVERIFIED anyway — FRP at those three cells 4.86, 14.37, and 1.94 respectively, nominal-to-low confidence, all from a detection date that predates this brief by nearly a week. The news sweep (InciWeb above; lakewenatcheeinfo.com — unreachable, empty response again; Lake Chelan Now, still only its Sep 12 RAWS piece; the county EM page above; wasmoke.blogspot.com, most recent relevant post Sep 11, now six days old; and a general search, which surfaced only older/background coverage from earlier growth stages) found nothing supporting a new start near Plain.
Fire weather
The window runs northwesterly throughout — Today 0–5 mph, tonight 2–7 mph, Friday 5–9 mph, Friday night 2–9 mph — with a westerly component that sits in the favorable quadrant and no due-north/northeast push down the Chiwawa or White River drainages toward Plain. Saturday turns light southwesterly (~2 mph), also favorable; Sunday and Monday stay light and variable. Highs run warm, upper 70s to low 80s, with overnight lows in the mid-to-upper 40s. No fire-weather (red flag) alert is in effect. InciWeb's own weather note (high pressure, valley humidity 20–30%, terrain-driven winds under 10 mph) is consistent with the NWS picture above — no wind shift toward Plain in this window.
Air quality
Modeled AQI at the house is 24 (PM2.5 1.3 µg/m³) — Good, a clear improvement from 50–52 over the past two cycles.
Roads: no new road blocks logged.