After a winter with below-average snowpack and an unusually warm and dry start to summer, the National Interagency Fire Center warned that the Great Basin and parts of the Rocky Mountains faced an elevated risk of wildfires in July 2026.

The warning was accurate. By July 7, firefighters worked to contain nearly three dozen large early-season wildfires that ravaged forests in several parts of the western U.S. Utah was among the most active states, with fires that had charred 558 square miles (1,445 square kilometers) and four major fires that were not fully contained still burning.

The Cottonwood Fire ranked as one of the largest and most destructive fires of the year in Utah and the country so far. As of July 7, it had burned 150 square miles (390 square kilometers), just shy of the Babylon Fire in eastern Utah. Landsat 9 captured the false-color image (7-5-4 bands) above (right) on June 29, 2026, when blackened vegetation covered a large expanse of rugged terrain along the Beaver River. The image on the left shows the same area on June 5, a few weeks before the fire started. In this combination of shortwave infrared, near infrared, and visible light bands, unburned vegetation appears bright green, snow is blue, and clouds are white.

Ponderosa pine, oak, sagebrush and grasses were among the types of vegetation that burned. State Forestry Division officials told media outlets that the Cottonwood Fire had destroyed up to 150 structures. Eagle Point Ski Resort, which lost more than 100 condos and 30 cabins, also reported damage to four of its five chairlifts.

Damage to forests was extensive, although isolated patches survived largely unscathed and remained as green oases within the broader burned area. Among them were the woods around Camp Tushar, site of a 4-H summer camp. Beaver County officials credited years of forestry treatments, such as clearing brush and pruning branches, with helping save the campground and surrounding forests.

As the fire spread, NASA’s Fire Events Data Suite (FEDS) tracked its progression and growth rate. The visualization above, based on the FEDS system, shows the fire that erupted on June 23 and tripled in size in 12 hours that day as it spread north, east and south. It also grew rapidly on June 26, when it headed north. FEDS is based on data from the VIIRS (Visible IR Imaging Radiometer Suite) sensors aboard the Suomi NPP, NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 satellites, which detect active fires day and night using their thermal infrared signature.

FEDS is one of several tools available to firefighters and emergency management officials when responding to fires. First responders often rely on higher-resolution aerial imagery or firefighters scouring the edges of the fire to map the perimeters. FEDS offers a different advantage: consistent, easily accessible data that doesn’t need to be specially requested, according to Tempest McCabe, a University of Maryland scientist based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center who helped develop the tool. As a result, FEDS often detects the start of a fire before other sources and tracks fires throughout their duration. To leverage strengths like these, the FEDS team is working closely with operational fire behavior analysts, with support from NASA’s FireSense program, to better understand and anticipate periods of rapid fire spread.

A total of 1,289 firefighters have been deployed to the Cottonwood Fire, according to InciWeb, a website managed by the National Interagency Fire Center. As of July 7, the fire was 56 percent contained, but forecasters expect a warm, dry weather pattern to persist in the coming days, with fire behavior likely to be “very active to extreme” over the next 72 hours.

The government’s satellite data is part of a global system of observations used to track fire behavior and analyze emerging trends. Among the real-time wildfire monitoring tools that NASA makes available are FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System), Worldview browser and Fire Event Explorer.

As of July 7, 2026, fires had burned 5,265 square miles (13,636 square kilometers) across the United States, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. That’s 46 percent more than the 10-year average (2016-2025) for that point in the season.

NASA Earth Observatory images taken by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the US Geological Survey and fire perimeter data from Fire Events Data Suite. Story by Adam Voiland.

FEDS fire perimeter (from June 23 to July 7)

• 2KUTV (July 6, 2026) Babylon Fire surpasses Cottonwood Fire as the largest active wildfire in the country. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• KSL.com (2026, July 2) Despite devastation, Cottonwood Fire leaves behind ‘islands of hope’ on Beaver Mountain. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• KUER (2026, July 6) Cottonwood Fire is another blow for ranchers in a difficult year for rural Utah. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• NASA Earthdata (2026) Wildfires. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center (2026, July 6) National Fire News. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center (2026, July 6) Incident Management Status Report, Monday, July 6. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center (2026, July 1) National outlook on the potential for major wildfires. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• The Salt Lake Tribune (2026, June 30) Eagle Point owner shares photos of complex charred by Cottonwood Fire. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• The Salt Lake Tribune (2026, June 30) Utah wildfires rank 1 and 2 largest in the country. Here’s the latest on major fires. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• US Drought Monitor (June 30, 2026) Utah. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• Utah Fire Information Home (2026, July 7) 2026 Season Summary. Retrieved July 7, 2026.