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.