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Oregon State Smoke Forecast for Aug. 26-27, 2017

Issued:  Aug. 25, 2017
Forecaster.  R. Graw, USDA Forest Service

This weekend will bring some changes to the smoke situation. Hot and dry weather, and easterly winds will be the predominant weather feature affecting smoke. With this weather, fire and smoke production is expected to increase compared to the past few days.

Saturday

Smoke will move into the southern half of the Oregon Coast from Coos Bay south on Saturday. Most of the Willamette Valley should remain smoke free, except later in the day, Eugene and communities on the western foothills will experience some smoke. Roseburg will also get smoky as the smoke from the fires in the Cascades will move west. The Cascades will remain smoky throughout the day.  Areas along the eastern side of the Cascades in Central Oregon will remain smoky as well. Eastern Oregon may see some haze and light concentrations of smoke, as well. 

The images below depicts the 24-hour average smoke concentrations at the surface across the state tomorrow. The map is best interpreted in a relative sense rather than absolute concentrations. Thus the darker shades of red indicate areas of heavier smoke. Pink indicates lighter smoke. The concentration of smoke during any given hour can vary significantly from the daily average.

Figure 1.  Model-Predicted 24-hour Average Smoke in for Saturday August 26


Sunday

Smoke will move into the Willamette Valley and southern coast on Sunday, as illustrated in Figure 2.  The heaviest smoke will occur between Sisters and Eugene, the Cascades, and southwest Oregon.  Klamath Falls and Chiloquin will see some moderate amounts of smoke but not as heavy as in the past few days. Central and Northeast Oregon will still experience light smoke and haze at times as the smoke from the fires in Washington and Idaho will move into those portions of the state (not shown in the figure).

Figure 2.  Model-Predicted 24-hour Average Smoke for Sunday August 27, 2017



Please refer to the Air Resource Advisor Reports on this blog for more detailed forecasts for areas near the fires.