A rare August thunderstorm brought upwards of an inch of rain and 3,379 lightning strikes to Oregon on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
The storm, which brought moisture in from the Gulf of Alaska, doused the entire western half of the state with at least a quarter inch of rain. Some locations in the Cascade Foothills and High Cascades saw over an inch of rain, meteorologists said.
Portland got 0.30 inches of rain, Salem got 0.24 and Eugene saw 0.43.
Hillsboro and McMinnveille both set records for most rain recorded on Aug. 17, with a 0.5 inches and 0.4 inches, respectively.
“It’s not the type of event that we typically see at this point in August,” NWS meteorologist Jon Liu said.
Will the rain help Oregon's wildfires?
The heavy and widespread rain will slow the wildfires burning in Oregon’s Cascade Range, but it won’t mean the end of the fire season.
Joe Hessel, incident commander on the fire team managing the 25,250-acre Cottage Grove and Lane 1 Complex, said fire crews would capitalize on the rainfall.
“Mother Nature has handed us an opportunity we don’t get in August very often,” he said in a news release. “Today’s a good day to grub out hot spots and do some really good work.”
The combination of rain and a forecast of cool and possibly wet weather should also help quell fire behavior and fire danger for a while.
“We’re not expecting any other big storms any time soon, but there could be some showers later this week,” Liu said. “It’s also going to be cool.”
Even so, Oregon's fire season typically lasts into late September or October. Another stretch of hot and dry weather, or the arrival of east winds, could bring fire danger back up.
What about the lightning strikes igniting new fires?
Oregon actually ended up with three times as many lightning strikes as the storm in July that ignited many of the fires currently burning in the Cascade Range . That storm had just over 1,000 strikes.
The difference this time was the amount of rain doused flames before they could get rolling.
However, the lightning strikes could turn into “holdovers,” where lightning-struck trees can smolder for days or weeks before the weather dries out and the fires ignites.
Liu said the rain was generally good for fires long-term, but the amount of strikes could become an issue down the road.
Fire crews from across the state began putting out small fires caused by the lightning on Sunday and continued into Monday. None of the mew lightning-ignited fires have grown into large new fires yet, as of Monday morning.
“It’ll take a while to see the full effect,” he said. “We might have some holdovers. But generally, I’d say the rain was heavy enough that it was (a good thing).”
Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 16 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast . To support his work, subscribe to the Statesman Journal . He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon gets rain, 3,379 lightning strikes. How will it impact wildfires?
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