Heavy rain forecast for Oregon's mountains, valleys. How much will it help fire season?

Another round of significant rain is forecast for western Oregon’s mountains and valleys, helping to further slow the state’s wildfire season.

This system won’t come with as much drama as last week’s, when high winds and more than 3,000 lightning strikes lit up the sky . But it will get quite wet between Thursday and the weekend, with 1-2 inches of rain forecast in the mountains and a half-inch in the Willamette Valley.

“We’re forecasting it to come in a few rounds, but the heaviest rain is definitely Thursday night into Friday morning,” National Weather Service meteorologist Hannah Chandler-Cooley said.

The rest of the days, including Friday and Saturday, should just be showery and overcast before warmer and drier conditions return Sunday and early next week.

The rain will help continue the major slowdown of Oregon’s wildfire season, which set a record for acres burned earlier this year but has mellowed significantly in August.

Wildfire closures in the Cascades have slowly started to be lifted and many evacuation warnings have been downgraded or eliminated. However, many campfire restrictions remain in place.

Oregon’s wildfire season typically lasts into mid-September and early October.

“We’re definitely doing better than we were in July, however, we’re still still in the middle of fire season and if it did dry back out, we could revert back into higher fire danger,” Chandler-Cooley said. “I wouldn’t consider this ending our fire season, but it does help.”

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: Heavy rain forecast for Oregon's mountains, valleys. How much will it help fire season?