New red flag warning issued for Sunday, Monday

(Update: New red flag warning issued)

There have been more than a dozen wildfires just this week in Central Oregon, and through Friday evening, we were under a red flag warning – with another on the way for Sunday and Monday.

And as the heat continues, the National Weather Service in Pendleton issued a new red flag warning Saturday for much of Central and Northeast Oregon, for the period of 2 p.m. Sunday to 9 p.m. Monday, for gusty winds and low humidity bringing more “critical fire weather conditions.”

In a typical year, about 10 to 15 days see the highest fire weather warning. It could involve hot and dry weather, winds, lots of lightning, or unstable air.

“Right now, it’s just hot, dry and unstable,” Central Oregon Fire Management Officer Alex Robertson said Friday. “We’re not looking at getting a whole bunch of lightning, but we know if we do get a fire start under these conditions that there’s a potential for fast fire growth.”

Unstable air means it rises and behaves a lot like thunderstorms, only right now there is no moisture. That pulls the smoke up and away from a wildfire, letting it breathe and grow quickly.

Plus, the hot and dry conditions during the day linger overnight, preventing fuel from getting moisture. That makes a fire tougher to catch and easier to spark.

“This year, there’s a much greater potential for those accidental fire starts because of that fine fuel and how dry it is and how susceptible it is to fire,” Robertson said.

A fire Friday at Crooked River Ranch that threatened homes — the third at CRR in three days — was started by hot exhaust from a weed eater, officials said. Larger fires also broke out near Warm Springs and at Grizzly Mountain, northwest of Prineville.

Currently, we’re under Industrial Fire Protection Level 2, which puts restrictions on woodcutters and contractors doing work in the woods. We don’t have a public use restriction that would affect campfires in place yet, but we do see it every year, and it looks likely to happen soon.

“(If) we continue with weather like this, I would predict that we will be very soon,” Robertson said. “Especially if we see an uptick in human-caused fires.”

There have been more human-caused fires this year, thanks to the dry conditions. We’ve even had cars sparking fires along roads with dry brush and cheatgrass.

After two weeks of hot and dry conditions, the next two weeks look like more of the same — so be on the lookout for public use restrictions and, of course, be careful with anything that could spark a wildfire..