Warm and dry weekend, air quality issues into next week 

The severe storms earlier this week over Eastern Oregon were not kind to the wildland firefighters.  Gusts near 65 mph near the storms along with thousands of lightning strikes and brief rounds of heavy rain contributed to the extreme fire behavior this week. Currently there are around 125 active fires and over 1 million acres consumed this season. We are dealing with one of the most active fire seasons in history, and it is only July. 

The weather this weekend will be good and bad, the good news is that the afternoon high temperatures will be in the 80s, the bad news is there may be a few more storms in SE Oregon.  A batch of storms are forecast to develop in the heat of the day today in Lake, Harney and Malheur Counties. The pop-up storms will generate gusty winds and some dry lightning.  The opportunity for more wildfires is once again present in the area that has seen three megafires already. 

Smoke from the Crazy Creek fire and the Battle Mountain Complex will drift south through Grand and Harney Counties today. The Air Quality Alert is in place until further notice.  Eastern Crook County will see some dense smoke as the Crazy Creek fire contributes high levels of smoke.  

Jefferson and Deschutes Counties will be in the “favorable” zone with respect to the winds.  The wind today and Sunday will be from the Northwest, pushing the smoke out away from the 97 highway. The Air Quality is not going to be good, but considering the dense smoke in Eastern Oregon, it will be much better. 

Sunday will be dry and warm again with mostly sunny skies and highs in the middle to upper 80s.  Central Oregon will see highs in the 80s through Wednesday, then we return to the 90s on Thursday. 

Stay Safe 

 
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