Isolated dry lightning over the weekend, hot with increased fire danger

The month of August is picking up where July left off, record heat. There were some record high temperatures tied yesterday (Redmond, Madras) and a few more records are in jeopardy today. The triple digit heat should yield to low and mid-90s over the weekend but the reason is not good.

There is a chance for some isolated dry thunderstorms this weekend as the western edge of the heat dome lingers in Oregon. Around the edge will be a weak disturbance that should provide some isolated thunderstorms in Central and Eastern Oregon late Saturday and early Sunday.

The storms will develop over very dry air allowing for the convection to generate lightning, but not enough rain to make it to the ground.  The storms will generate very gusty winds in various directions, causing the fires already burning to push into the “extreme” fire behavior category. The lightning may also generate new fires, that may not show up for a couple days, so this weekend is going to be problematic for our firefighting efforts.

Sunday will be partly cloudy and hot with highs reaching the middle 90s. The stormy pattern is likely to have cleared the area Sunday, so the heat and sunshine return.

Monday will be sunny and hot as well, as the chance for any beneficial rain is off the table. Highs will be a bit hotter Monday than Sunday, but should not get into the triple digit range.

Tuesday will see temperature readings near 90 and that pattern will continue until the end of the work week.

Stay Safe

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