Oregon wildfire smoke lingers, impacting air quality in Eugene, Bend as weather stays dry

This story was updated at 1 p.m. to include the air quality advisory.

Wildfire season hasn’t wrapped up yet in Oregon, and it’s likely to impact air quality through at least this weekend.

The cluster of fires burning in the southern Central Cascades has led to degraded air quality ranging from “moderate” to “unhealthy for sensitive groups” between Bend and Eugene.

The fires, which include active blazes such as the Young Grasshopper, Fuller Lake and 208 fires — among others — are mostly just smoldering. They’re not growing in major ways and have remained in containment lines. But the fires are putting up enough smoke that without strong winds, it can settle into the valleys and degrade air quality, said Andy Bryant with the National Weather Service in Portland.

“They’re kind of sitting in place — not growing rapidly or causing a lot of concern,” Bryant said. “But when we have those light or variable winds it can settle in.”

Air quality has typically been worse on the east side but has impacted towns such as Oakridge, Sunriver and Redmond. An air quality advisory was issued Tuesday for Deschutes, Harney and northern Klamath and Lake counties.

Light west winds should push smoke east and south on Wednesday, but the return of easterly winds could bring hazy skies west of the Cascades Thursday and into the weekend, Bryant said.

“We could be getting some more smoke back into the Willamette Valley later in the week,” Bryant said.

What the fires need is more rain, which has been slow to arrive this autumn. Bryant said the best chance for rain won’t come until next week.

Until then, the smoke is likely to continue hanging around between Bend and Eugene.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 16 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast . 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: Oregon wildfire smoke lingers, impacting air quality in Eugene, Bend as weather stays dry