Air quality issues remain, Red Flag Warning issued for Thursday and Friday

A Fire Weather Warning (formerly referred to as a Red Flag Warning) will go into effect Thursday at 11am until Friday at 11pm for areas east of the Cascades. Deschutes County is in the warned area, except for the NW corner of the county including Sisters.

This warning replaces the previously issued watch for the region.  The chance for isolated storms to produce lightning strikes is the main concern with respect to fire growth.  The dry fuel on the ground and the wind generated by outflows from the storms will be a cause for concern with respect to rapid fire growth.

The overall weather pattern heading into the weekend will be defined by variably cloudy skies and some scattered showers and storms. 

The presence of the smoke in Deschutes County from the Bedrock fire has prompted the NWS to extend the Air Quality Alert until further notice. Air quality will be in the moderate to slightly unhealthy range in the region.

The monsoonal flow is going to introduce some cloud cover and rain over the eastern two-thirds of Oregon, starting either late Thursday and will linger into early Saturday.  The bulk of the rainy and stormy weather will be east of Deschutes County, but stray showers and storms may drift our way.

Generally, Thursday will be more of a “setup” day, with the clouds increasing in coverage, along with a slight chance for rain and isolated storms. Friday currently looks to be the more active day, although still only about 20 – 30% chance of rain in our county.

Saturday should see some isolated storms in the afternoon, so keep an eye to the sky as the day moves along. 

A few models are hinting at a cooler pattern to arrive next week. Forecast high temperatures next week will be in the middle to lower 80s. Rain chances are less than 10% for the start of next week, for now.

The Bedrock Fire continues to grow, last report from this morning has the blaze at 11K acres and only 5% contained.

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