Smoke Update and Outlook

Smoke Situation  

While things have been relatively quiet on fires in Washington, recent warmer and drier weather has increased fire activity and smoke production around fires in Oregon and Idaho. 

Localized smoke from fires in Oregon and Idaho. Courtesy: College of DuPage

 

Light, offshore winds are expected through Saturday which may bring light/moderate amounts of smoke over southern and western Washington. Air quality is expected to be Moderate for much of western Washington with some portions of southwest Washington seeing periods of Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups. New fire starts or an increase in smoke output from existing fires could lead to locally worse air quality. Smoke is expected to clear gradually this weekend. 

Air Quality Advisories are currently in place for the following counties: Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, Skamania, and Wahkiakum. 

To learn more or find out if there’s an Air Quality Advisory in place for your location, check with your local clean air agency. Air Quality Advisories may be put in place or removed at any time.  

For Air Quality Advisories on Reservations in Washington, visit: https://www.epa.gov/farr/burn-bans-indian-reservations-id-or-and-wa 

 

Forecast Outlook 

Relief from the heat and the smoke will come in phases from west to east. The first phase begins Friday as the seasonably strong ridge overhead begins to weaken. This will allow cooler onshore flow to reach the immediate coast, but these effects will be slow to move inland.  

East-southeast winds will continue to transport smoke from fires in Oregon into Washington through early Saturday, but an approaching upper-level disturbance will continue to chip away at the ridge, further weakening it and pushing it to the east. This will allow temperatures west of the Cascades to begin to cool, and smoke impacts will begin to lessen. 

 

Fire weather outlook from the Storm Prediction Center highlighting the potential for dry thunderstorms in the Cascades on Saturday

This system does come with concern for fire danger. Isolated thunderstorms will be possible Saturday afternoon through early Sunday in the Cascades. Although the smoke situation will be improving with increasing onshore flow, fuels will be very receptive to new lightning ignitions.  

Onshore flow will bring cooler but still above average temperatures to western Washington on Sunday. Central and eastern Washington will remain warm with air quality concerns lingering. A stronger belt of westerly winds will impact the state on Monday as a system passes to our north. This will further alleviate widespread wildfire smoke, but at the same time will elevate fire weather conditions east of the Cascades.