It’s been a mostly quiet season for wildfires in Oregon this summer, but that could change in a big way over the next week.
Extremely hot temperatures combined with dry winds from the east will ramp up the fire danger through this weekend and into next week.
“Rising temperatures and decreasing humidity create conditions for growth on existing fires as well as the fuel conditions for new fires to become established,” the U.S. Forest Service said in a news release.
Isolated thunderstorms and east winds are forecast to arrive, a weather phenomenon known for fueling the worst wildfire disasters in history, including the 2020 Labor Day fires, which ignited after a similarly quiet summer five years ago.
While officials emphasized the forecast calls for light east winds and “this is not consi