‘Very good’ August mellowed Oregon’s wildfires. Labor Day heat will bring fresh test

What a difference a month makes.

In early August, Oregon had already set a modern record for acres burned by wildfires (1.5 million) and was starting down the gauntlet for the year’s hottest month with multiple fires burning.

And then everything flipped.

Two very wet weather systems traveled across the state and temperatures nose-dived, mellowing the vast majority of fires and dramatically altering the season’s outlook.

Oregon dropped from more than 30 large active wildfires to 12 as of Wednesday, and many have a decent level of containment.

Fire danger went from some of the highest on record to historically low for this time of year, said John Saltenberger, fire weather meteorologist for the Northwest Coordination Center.

“August has been very good to us,” he said of the cool and wet weather.

Yet many fire restrictions remain in effect heading into Labor Day Weekend and fire officials stressed that the season isn’t finished. Campfires are still banned in many places statewide and wildfire closures, while reduced in some areas, still block off thousands of acres of public lands.

State to see heat wave as Oregon enters most dangerous part of wildfire season

Part of the reason is that the most dangerous part of fire season — early September — is still to come. And it’s getting started with the first heat wave in a long time.

Temperatures will rise well into the 90s while the forest dries out and warm east winds arrive, testing what remains of the state’s fires.

“We’re expecting a warming and drying trend, a bit of a cooling off, and then possibly another warm and dry trend,” Saltenberger said. “Will that translate into high fire potential? It’s hard to know at this point.”

Many of Oregon’s largest wildfire blowups have taken place in early September in recent years, including the 2020 Labor Day wildfires, the 2022 Cedar Creek Fire blowup and the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire. Those blowups were caused by strong east winds that can cause active fires to rapidly spread and spark new fires to ignite.

Currently, those type of powerful east winds aren’t forecast, Saltenberger said, but the state will get some light to moderate east winds Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. That may cause some fires to grow and could ignite fires from previous lightning strikes.

But, it’s also possible this fire season goes out with a whimper.

“Right now we’re at a low point for fire danger,” Saltenberger said. “It’s going to come up and we’ll see what happens, but I have to emphasize that it’s not nearly as bad as we were expecting earlier this month.”

Wildfire acres burned this year sets record

Oregon set a modern record for acres burned this year at 1.5 million. However, it might not feel like a record-breaking season on the west side of the state because most of the fires have burned in eastern Oregon rangeland. That's had a big impact on ranchers and on air quality east of the Cascades, but those fires typically come under control faster than forest fires that burn in the Cascades or in western Oregon.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 16 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast . Urness is the author of “ Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon ” and “ Hiking Southern Oregon .” He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: ‘Very good’ August mellowed Oregon’s wildfires. Labor Day heat will bring fresh test