Storm activity brings a fire weather warning
As of this morning, lingering smoke from the Bedrock fire, east of Eugene, has caused the National Weather Service to extend the air quality alert in Deschutes county until further notice. Air quality will be in the moderate to slightly unhealthy range for the foreseeable future.
Storms are likely on the way this afternoon as we sit between a low pressure system over the NE Pacific and that storm activity we’ve been keeping our eye on, in the the south central United States. Today, that flow will turn to the north and toward our area, bringing monsoonal moisture and storm activity to southern and eastern portions of the state. This will result in an increasing chance of thunderstorms from central Oregon eastward.
As a result, a fire weather warning will be in place from Thursday at 11am through Friday at 11pm for areas east of the Cascades including much of Deschutes County. The chance for isolated storms to produce lightning strikes is the main concern regarding fire growth. Initially, these storms may produce very little rainfall, but still abundant lightning. This type of activity, combined with plenty of dry ground fuel and locally gusty conditions has high potential to create new fire starts. As we get into Friday afternoon and evening, the storms should continue to move into Central Oregon and produce a bit more moisture.
Much of the rest of the state is continuing to experience seasonably warm temperatures as we begin to see our change in weather pattern over the next few days. Today’s highs will be similar to the earlier part of the week in the upper 80s and lower 90s with overnight lows remaining in the low to mid 50s with upper to mid 40s in some areas. Friday will be just slightly cooler to end our work week with high temperatures in the mid 80s to around 90 in the lower elevations before things begin to calm down slightly late in the weekend and into next week.
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