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Oregon State Smoke Forecast for Thursday Aug. 24, 2017

Issued:  August 23, 2017
Forecaster.  R. Graw, USDA Forest Service

A low pressure system will swing just north of Oregon tomorrow bringing a change to winds through out the day as the system advances eastward.  For Western Oregon, winds will remain out of the north much of the day. Good air quality can be expected for the Willamette Valley and most of the coast. However, the Rogue and Illinois Valley will continue to experience some smoke. The central and southern Cascades will continue to be smokey, particularly south and west of the fires.

In South Central Oregon, winds will begin the day out of the southwest, bring smoke from the fires in Northwest California in areas such as Klamath Falls and to a lesser degree in Lakeview. A bit further north, winds will be out of the west, bringing smoke into the communities along the eastern side of the Cascades. Sisters, Bend and Redmond will experience the worst of the smoke. Smoke will drift further east bringing hazy skies and moderate air quality levels to communities such as Burns, John Day, La Grande and Baker City.  

By late afternoon, the winds will shift to be out of the north in Central Oregon, which will bring the smoke into South Central Oregon.  

The images below depicts the 24-hour average smoke concentrations at the surface and the peak hourly concentrations 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 higher smoke. The concentration of smoke during any given hour can vary significantly from the daily average.


Figure 1.  Model-Predicted 24-hour Average Smoke for Thursday Aug. 24, 2017