Geosphere Night Microphysics RGB imagery on 11 July 2024, below, shows a signal developing over (what was eventually called) the Cow Valley fire in rural eastern Oregon. The new fire developed just north of the Bonita Springs fire and to the west of the Huntington Mutual Aid fire. A consistent signal is apparent by 1100 UTC. According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), the fire was first reported at 1310 UTC, two hours later.

GOES-18 imagery from the Geosphere site, below, shows the growth of the smoke pall from the fire. In addition, the bright white reflectance within the smoke suggests occasional development of pyrocumulus clouds.

The image below, from the Watch Duty app, shows the fire perimeter on the evening of 11 July, and also two adjacent fires (Bonita Road to the southwest and Huntington Mutual Aid to the east, both of which can be viewed in the satellite imagery above; Bonita Road is also apparent in imagery below)

The initial Next Generation Fire System (NGFS) detection of this event was at 1111 UTC on 11 July, as shown below. This animation shows how a signal flickered in the area for about 30 minutes before the fire pixels were identified by the NGFS.

Once fire pixels have been identified, it is possible (by clicking on a pixel) to probe, as shown below, to determine what kind of fuel is available, and to determine how much urban area is present. The pixels are mostly vegetation, and do not include a Wilderness-Urban interface (WUI).

NUCAPS profiles, in this case from Metop-C, shown below, give information that might help a Incident Meteorologist. In particular, near-dry adiabatic lapse rates in the mid-troposphere might help anticipate the pyrocumulus behavior observed, using either the gridded NUCAPS shown just below, or the individual profiles shown beneath that.

As of 18z on 12 July, this fire has closed US Route 26 in eastern Oregon, from milepost 254 to 231. Forecasts for this area come from the NWS forecast office in Pendleton. The CIMSS Next Generation Fire System website is here. A more recent fire perimeter mapping, below, from the Watch Duty App, valid around 20 UTC on 12 July, shows the significant expansion of the fire.

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