In a contrast of fire and ice, smoke from wildland fires mingled with several of the Cascade Range\u2019s prominent, glaciated volcanoes in summer 2026. Astronauts on the International Space Station photographed the scene while orbiting over the U.S. West in late July and early August.<\/p>\n
Mount Hood, Oregon\u2019s tallest peak at 11,249 feet (3,429 meters), is pictured above, near a thick plume of smoke pouring from the Grasshopper fire. Thunderstorms passed over the forest in the preceding weeks, and a lightning strike on July 23 ignited the blaze pictured in this July 31 photo. The fire, burning east of the mountain, spread quickly north and east across Mount Hood National Forest amid hot, dry conditions, according to InciWeb.<\/p>\n
As of August 12, it had burned nearly 84,000 acres (34,000 hectares) and spread beyond national forest boundaries. Several communities in Wasco County were under \u201cgo now\u201d evacuation orders, and the nearby town of Dufur was advised to prepare for immediate evacuation.<\/p>\n
Roughly 100 miles to the north in Washington, Mount Rainier\u2014the state\u2019s tallest peak at 14,411 feet (4,392 meters)\u2014was wreathed in smoke. No major fires burned nearby when this photo was taken on August 4. Instead, smoke drifted in from fires in central and eastern Washington, carried by winds blowing from the east due to a high-pressure system offshore. That day, the National Park Service reported that air quality in the park reached unhealthy levels due to elevated concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5<\/sub>).<\/p>\n Several days later, the Grand Park 2 fire was observed burning within park boundaries, about 3 miles north of the Sunrise Visitor Center. As of August 12, the fire had burned 223 acres (90 hectares) and was uncontained; the cause was yet undetermined. \u00a0<\/p>\n Above-normal fire potential was expected to persist across the Northwest through August, according to an outlook from the National Interagency Fire Center. Warm, dry weather\u2014conditions influenced by El Ni\u00f1o\u2014combined with cured fuels to set the stage for large, long-burning fires following lightning- or human-caused ignitions.<\/p>\n Astronaut photographs\u00a0ISS075-E-1705 and ISS075-E-2221 were acquired on July 31, 2026, and August 4, 2026, respectively, with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a focal length of 400 millimeters. They are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by a member of the\u00a0Expedition 75 crew. The images have been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The\u00a0International Space Station Program\u00a0supports the laboratory as part of the\u00a0ISS National Lab\u00a0to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA\/JSC\u00a0Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Story by Kathryn Hansen.<\/em><\/p>\nMt. Rainier: August 4, 2026<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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