Will firefighters receive any help from Mother Nature in wake of western wind event?
By
Brandon Buckingham, AccuWeather Meteorologist
Published Sep 9, 2020 9:40 AM EDT
Multiple wildfires burning across the Northwest have made the sky look like it's from Mars including this video recorded from Depoe Bay, Oregon, on Sept. 8.
"Out of control", "extreme" and "erratic" have all been terms used to describe the wildfire behavior out West as a massive early season wind event swept across the region early this week. Winds have since subsided from their extremes, but that doesn't mean Mother Nature is going to fully cooperate.
With more than 2,000,000 acres burned and counting, California's 2020 wildfire season is now one for the record books, and unfortunately, there's still quite a bit of time left in the season for those numbers to climb.
Three of the top four wildfires in terms of acreage burned have now occurred in 2020; the SCU Lightning Complex Fire, LNU Complex Fire and the August Complex Fire have all burned over 300,000 acres apiece.
The August Complex Fire is now the largest in California state history, surpassing the Mendocino Complex Fire which burned 459,123 acres in 2018.
While not quite as large as the complex fires, the Creek Fire currently burning in Fresno County, California, also prompted numerous evacuations over Labor Day weekend as it quickly grew in size. As of Thursday night, the fire has burned over 175,000 acres and was 6% contained.
As the wind shifted easterly during the day on Tuesday across the state of Oregon, the smoke from ongoing fires across the state blew westward to many of the metropolitan areas along Interstate 5. From Portland to Medford, a dim, smoky sky led to very poor air quality for area residents during the day.
Wildfire activity late Tuesday evening near Medford, Oregon, prompted evacuation orders for residents across the southern metropolitan area of the city. The cities of Talent and Phoenix, Oregon, located just southwest of Medford seem to have taken the most damage so far from this fire.
Farther north across Washington state, Governor Jay Inslee stated in a press conference that more than 330,000 acres burned in a span of just 24 hours. For reference, that's more acreage that typically burns in an entire year across the state.
Although the gusty winds will relax into the weekend, conditions will not get much better as dry, and increasingly warm conditions will settle back into the region.
The major storm system responsible for the high wind event observed across the Great Basin and West Coast is weakening and lifting northeastward out of the central Rockies and into the Plains. This weakening trend and trajectory of the storm system will allow for the dangerous wind gusts to subside, however, it will allow for a warmer air mass to expand over the West Coast and the ongoing dry fuels and lack of rainfall will continue.
The high winds limited aircraft assistance early this week across California and the Pacific Northwest, but that should change through the remainder of the week as gusty winds begin to subside. Unfortunately, that will likely be the only beneficial aspect of the forecast in the coming days across the region.
As the storm system across the Rockis lifts northeastward, an expanding area of high pressure will once again set up across the West Coast, resulting in above-average temperatures from Seattle to San Diego through the weekend.
The rather stagnant air mass will likely keep areas of smoke in place across the Northwest, Great Basin, California and other areas across the West dealing with wildfire activity, resulting in continued poor air quality.
Some relief may be on the way for the Northwest by early next week as a storm system will approach the coast, but the amount of available moisture within the storm and resultant expected rainfall remains up for debate at this time. An unwanted side-effect may come along with the approaching system early next week as well in the form of increasingly gusty winds once again.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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News / Severe Weather
Will firefighters receive any help from Mother Nature in wake of western wind event?
By Brandon Buckingham, AccuWeather Meteorologist
Published Sep 9, 2020 9:40 AM EDT
Multiple wildfires burning across the Northwest have made the sky look like it's from Mars including this video recorded from Depoe Bay, Oregon, on Sept. 8.
"Out of control", "extreme" and "erratic" have all been terms used to describe the wildfire behavior out West as a massive early season wind event swept across the region early this week. Winds have since subsided from their extremes, but that doesn't mean Mother Nature is going to fully cooperate.
With more than 2,000,000 acres burned and counting, California's 2020 wildfire season is now one for the record books, and unfortunately, there's still quite a bit of time left in the season for those numbers to climb.
Three of the top four wildfires in terms of acreage burned have now occurred in 2020; the SCU Lightning Complex Fire, LNU Complex Fire and the August Complex Fire have all burned over 300,000 acres apiece.
The August Complex Fire is now the largest in California state history, surpassing the Mendocino Complex Fire which burned 459,123 acres in 2018.
While not quite as large as the complex fires, the Creek Fire currently burning in Fresno County, California, also prompted numerous evacuations over Labor Day weekend as it quickly grew in size. As of Thursday night, the fire has burned over 175,000 acres and was 6% contained.
As the wind shifted easterly during the day on Tuesday across the state of Oregon, the smoke from ongoing fires across the state blew westward to many of the metropolitan areas along Interstate 5. From Portland to Medford, a dim, smoky sky led to very poor air quality for area residents during the day.
Wildfire activity late Tuesday evening near Medford, Oregon, prompted evacuation orders for residents across the southern metropolitan area of the city. The cities of Talent and Phoenix, Oregon, located just southwest of Medford seem to have taken the most damage so far from this fire.
Farther north across Washington state, Governor Jay Inslee stated in a press conference that more than 330,000 acres burned in a span of just 24 hours. For reference, that's more acreage that typically burns in an entire year across the state.
Although the gusty winds will relax into the weekend, conditions will not get much better as dry, and increasingly warm conditions will settle back into the region.
The major storm system responsible for the high wind event observed across the Great Basin and West Coast is weakening and lifting northeastward out of the central Rockies and into the Plains. This weakening trend and trajectory of the storm system will allow for the dangerous wind gusts to subside, however, it will allow for a warmer air mass to expand over the West Coast and the ongoing dry fuels and lack of rainfall will continue.
The high winds limited aircraft assistance early this week across California and the Pacific Northwest, but that should change through the remainder of the week as gusty winds begin to subside. Unfortunately, that will likely be the only beneficial aspect of the forecast in the coming days across the region.
As the storm system across the Rockis lifts northeastward, an expanding area of high pressure will once again set up across the West Coast, resulting in above-average temperatures from Seattle to San Diego through the weekend.
The rather stagnant air mass will likely keep areas of smoke in place across the Northwest, Great Basin, California and other areas across the West dealing with wildfire activity, resulting in continued poor air quality.
Some relief may be on the way for the Northwest by early next week as a storm system will approach the coast, but the amount of available moisture within the storm and resultant expected rainfall remains up for debate at this time. An unwanted side-effect may come along with the approaching system early next week as well in the form of increasingly gusty winds once again.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Report a Typo