Cooler weather in Oregon over the past week has slowed the spread of many of the state’s 13 large wildfires still burning uncontrolled, a two-thirds decrease from the 39 large fires that burned 1,000,000 acres of land in Oregon as of August 1.
“The impacts have caused fire activity to slow significantly compared to what we saw earlier this summer,” said Jon Bonk, a fire weather meteorologist with the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.
Bonk explained that the combination of rain and lower temperatures meant that fuels such as grasses and wood did not dry out quickly enough to burn easily.
Firefighters, facing a far tougher fire year than 2023, have used this as an opportunity in some places across the state to attack existing fires more directly, putting them out on the periphery rather than building containment lines farther from the fire, Bonk said.
But Bonk cautioned that the lower number of fires and lower temperatures in recent weeks do not mean fire season is over. Warmer weather is likely to return on Thursday and continue into next weekend, although temperatures are unlikely to reach early August levels.
“This dries out the fuels again and makes them easier to burn,” he said. “The fire season can often last into September.”
Still, firefighters have made significant progress since early August, said Carol Connolly, spokeswoman for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.
Connolly said 404,000 acres are currently burning in Oregon, up from more than 1.1 million acres in early August. “We’ve made great progress.”
Jennifer Russel, a spokeswoman for Great Basin Idaho Team 1, which is currently battling the 60,000-acre Falls Fire, said the cool weather has proven to be a blessing in preventing the fire from flaring up again, adding that it has “absolutely” helped reduce the chances of a rekindle.
“It’s 100% contained,” she said. “It’s been that way for over a week now and there’s really no way it’s going to get past those (fire) lines in the current situation we’re in right now.”
Firefighters are also benefiting from the weather at the 2,067-acre Whiskey Creek fire near Cascade Locks.
“The higher humidity and lower temperatures have calmed the fire behavior,” said Michele Laboda, a spokeswoman for Northwest Complex Incident Management Team 10, which is fighting the fire. “It is safer for our personnel to get close to the edge of the active fire.”
Laboda said that where terrain permits, the weather, among other things, has helped firefighters to be more aggressive in fighting the fire, which is now 24 percent contained.
But Laboda repeated Bonk’s warning that one should not assume that the fire season is over.
“This weather has slowed down the season,” she said, “but it is not the end of the season.”
— Tatum Todd covers crime and public safety. Reach him at [email protected] or 503-221-4313.
