The sun peers through tree canopy at the Leach Botanical Garden in Southeast Portland on June 27, 2022.
April Ehrlich, April Ehrlich / OPB
This week’s heat wave doesn’t mean western Oregon is at increased risk for wildfires, at least in the short term.
Edward Hiatt is the Interagency Fire Staff Officer for Northwest Oregon. He says despite the hot weather, there are no specific reasons to be concerned at this point when it comes to fire activity.
“The weather stations where we capture data are showing it’s hot, it’s dry, but nothing is giving us a big problem,” said Hiatt.
A potential problem, said Hiatt, would be “if we were going to see thunderstorm development that carries up from the southwest and progresses across the forest. We don’t see that right now, and it’s not being reported by our weather experts, which is good.”
Hiatt said human-caused fires remain the biggest concern for now. Overall, the Pacific Northwest fire season this year has been relatively calm so far.