A plume of smoke from wildfires burning rises over Fort McMurray in this aerial photograph taken in Alberta, Canada. The entire Pacific Northwest region of North America is suffering from severe wildfires, and the season hasn’t even peaked yet. Image credit: Darryl Dyck/Bloomberg.

Wildfires are peaking as the solar eclipse nears; here’s what you need to know

Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming are all on fire, and simply driving your car can be the most dangerous thing of all.

“I’d rather fight 100 structure fires than a wildfire. With a structure fire you know where your flames are, but in the woods it can move anywhere; it can come right up behind you.” -Tom Watson

At the peak of wildfire season, all it takes is one errant spark to start a blaze, potentially leading to wildfires engulfing thousands of acres. It isn’t just the fire itself that’s dangerous, but also the smoke, the degraded air quality, and the potential closures of roads. In Oregon, in particular, over a million people are expected to travel to the seventy-mile-wide path of totality, in the heart of the hottest, driest part of the year. The entire pacific northwest, including parts of Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming, has active wildfires going right now, threatening the air, roads, and general safety of residents and tourists alike. With August 21st fast approaching, here’s what you need to know.

In 2002, a wildfire burned nearly 200,000 acres of land in the Siskiyou National Forest. Although there are no fires this large at the present time, conditions are present that make this a real danger, particularly with hundreds of thousands of tourists unfamiliar with fire safety due to arrive. Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.