Spotty storms may ignite new wildfires

The National Weather Service is concerned about the threat of showers and storms igniting new wildfires.  The air is very day and the rain that falls from the clouds will more than likely evaporate before making it to the surface. This will generate some gusty winds and the rain cooled air below the cloud sinks.  Combine that with the threat of dry lightning and we can be looking at the potential for a wildfire. Therefore, there is a Fire Weather Watch in place for most of the region until 11pm Friday.

Scattered showers are possible into the evening and once again Friday. There will not be much rain, but as mentioned, lightning and winds will be a problem. The area may have a few pockets of moderate rain shower activity, generally in the heat of the day, but for the most part we will be looking at widely scattered showers and storms Friday.

The rain tapers off a bit Friday night but may return against the mountains on Saturday afternoon. Sunday looks to bring us a mix of clouds and sunshine with temps in the middle 80s.

As for the smoke, there is still the lingering Air Quality Alert in place for Deschutes County until further notice. Smoke from the Bedrock Fire and some from the Grade Fire located north of Warm Springs.

The Bedrock Fire continues to grow, last report from this morning has the blaze at 12k acres and only 5% contained.

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