McConnell Fire

Humboldt County, Nevada · Wildfire

Active Official numbers updated Oct 9, 2026 (about 6 hours ago)

First reported about 7 weeks ago

Metric	Last report	Now	Change
Size	33,772 acres Oct 5, 7:00 PM	33,816 acres Oct 10, 1:00 AM +44 acres was 33,772 acres · Oct 5, 7:00 PM	+44 acres in 4 days
Containment	91% Sep 21, 6:00 PM	99% Oct 10, 1:00 AM +8 percent was 91% · Sep 21, 6:00 PM	+8 percent in 18 days
Crew size	13 Oct 9, 6:00 PM	16 Oct 10, 1:00 AM +3 was 13 · Oct 9, 6:00 PM	+3 in about 7 hours
Money spent	$12.0M Oct 9, 6:00 PM	$12.0M Oct 10, 1:00 AM +$10,000 was $12.0M · Oct 9, 6:00 PM	+$10,000 in about 7 hours

McConnell Fire summary

The McConnell Fire is a wildfire near Humboldt County, Nevada. It has burned about 33,816 acres (about 26,000 football fields). Crews have boxed in 99% of its edge; the other 1% isn't contained yet. It was first reported about 7 weeks ago. About 16 people are on it, run by a Type 3 IC.

Size: 33,816 acres
Containment: 99%
Discovered: August 25, 2026 (first reported about 7 weeks ago)
Cause: Not reported

The size and containment above are current as of Saturday, October 10th at 1:00 a.m. CDT.

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Weather & fire-spread conditions

⚠️ Red Flag Warning in effect. The National Weather Service has flagged conditions here — usually wind plus dry air — that can make fires spread fast. This is the official warning that fire danger is high right now.

Hot, dry, and windy weather can help a fire grow; cool, calm, or wet weather helps crews. The tags below rate each day for fire spread — green is calm, red can push a fire.

A general fire-weather guide (wind matters most, then how dry it is, then heat), not a prediction of what a specific fire will do.

	Day	Night
Tonight	—	54°F · Partly Cloudy Wind 10 to 15 mph SSW · 2% rain Wind: Breezy Heat: Cool Dry
Saturday	65°F · Sunny Wind 10 to 15 mph SW · 10% rain Wind: Breezy Heat: Cool Dry	41°F · Partly Cloudy Wind 15 to 25 mph NNE · 11% rain Wind: Windy Heat: Cool Dry
Sunday	48°F · Scattered Rain Showers Wind 15 mph NNE · 37% rain Wind: Breezy Heat: Cool Some rain	38°F · Scattered Rain Showers Wind 10 to 20 mph N · 48% rain Wind: Windy Heat: Cool Some rain

Forecast from the National Weather Service (weather.gov), pulled Saturday, October 10th at 1:01 a.m. CDT.

Could this fire move fast?

Weather isn't the only thing that changes how a fire moves. The ground matters too: how steep it is, and what's growing on it. These four numbers are for the exact spot where this fire started, not the whole fire. A big fire crosses a lot of different ground.

27° slope

Fire usually moves faster uphill than downhill. Heat and flame lean uphill, drying out the ground above the fire before it gets there.

Grass and shrub (GS2)

Grass with shrubs 1 to 3 feet tall. Fire moves fast, with medium-height flames.

0% tree canopy cover

The more tree cover above a fire, the easier it is for the fire to climb from the ground into the treetops. That's called a crown fire. Crown fires move faster, throw embers farther ahead of the fire, and are harder for crews to stop head-on.

5,336 ft elevation

Elevation by itself doesn't make a fire more or less dangerous. But it shapes the other three numbers here: what grows there, how dry things get, and what the weather does.

Elevation and slope from the USGS 3D Elevation Program; fuel type and canopy cover from LANDFIRE (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), pulled Thursday, September 10th at 3:58 p.m. CDT.

Who's on it

About 16 people are assigned to this fire, run by a Type 3 IC. The government rates it a Type 3 Incident. About $12 million has been spent on it so far.

The official feed reports the total headcount, not a breakdown by crew type.

Where to get live updates

We show the daily official picture. For minute-by-minute updates, evacuation orders, and maps, these do it best:

→ Watch Duty: real-time fire reporting and evacuations.
→ InciWeb: the government's official fire information site.

Nearby fires to McConnell Fire

No other active fires are near this one right now. It's on its own.

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