It’s about as ominous as you can get. I’ve been snapping sky photos like crazy, and as Jim pointed out, this morning was more like end of November for light.
and the temperature is lower as another consequence
Feels like I’ve been in the car all day long. And at this point, there’s too many people in Oregon suffering real losses for me to think our issues are very important.
My heart goes out to southern Oregon. And the area I grew up in is a mess, and evacuated. It’s far too early to comment on smoke taint still, and it also just doesn’t seem very important.
You are a good human being. Hoping quick relief for you all.
My mother was fine but Medford to the north was not spared the way Ashland was. People losing houses. The town of Detroit east of Salem on Hwy 22 is basically decimated. It’s awful. People around here are parked below the evacuation zones watching their houses on the hill. It’s insanely heartbreaking.
I don’t know what to think. Focus is nearly impossible and I’m worried about that given what it is we do and I’m not talking about making wine. I’m talking about heavy things moving around and stuff.
I’m also very angry.
My thoughts and prayers are with you all up there…
Wow, what a horrible tragedy, hope the weather turns more favorable and that all you and your families stay safe.
-Al
The note of field burning brought back memories of earlier times. I believe the practice was halted when the smoke obscured visibility on I-5 around Albany and there was a huge pile up where some lives were lost.
Went to pick up my evening latte and the server said the owner’s partner had a friend east of Eugene who lost their house and 3 vehicles. We just had a lot of tree trash from the strong winds, moved the street parking away from large trees in the city, none came down. Not much fun sitting outside waiting for that loud crack before the limb crashes down. Some blue sky above eastern Vancouver.
This mourning’s paper had a listing of all the OR fires, much worse than thought.
Had a picture sent to me near the golf course in Lincoln City and the place looked like hell. I’m not posting it because I can’t confirm its accuracy but even so, a fire in Lincoln City? How is that even possible? I’ve been to the coast in August and September and froze my ass off. Wild.
It’s unfortunately true. That one is the Echo Mountain Complex fire. As of yesterday the cause is not known, but the winds and very dry conditions (11% humidity in my area yesterday) are factors.
Chilly foggy 50s on the coast and sunny 80s inland…par for the course. Seems like the hot/dry east winds changed everything. Forecasts show more westerly winds for several days…along with increasing humidity and possibly a shower on Monday. Hope that really helps!
RT
Yes, there are literally fires in every direction. Chehalem Mountains to the north,
Beachie Creek and the Mt. Jefferson fires to the East, the big fires in Southern Oregon, and the Echo Mountain Complex to the West.
From a wine grape standpoint, winds die down today and shift to coming from the West, as opposed to the high winds from the East and North the past few days. So far smoke in Ribbon Ridge, Dundee Hills, and Yamhill-Carlton has stayed ominous but high up. But at this point, we’ll start micro-ferments to see what we can figure out. Weather changes significantly next week. And where we were racing towards ripening, we may be able to stretch back out to original expectations for harvest(21st of September).
Oregon is one of the largest suppliers of grass seed. Back then, grass seed was harvested by burning the grass and collecting the seed that was left behind. As a kid, I remember seeing farmers out lighting their fields with blow torches. A number of these farms were close to I-5 and the smoke would make the freeway virtually impassable at times in the fall. That led to bans on burning fields by grass seed farmers.
Glad to hear the news about the change in winds and humidity, need all the help nature can give. Sadly too late for many, though.
Didn’t know about grass seed harvesting. On the ranch, we would burn some of the marshy areas that dried out late in the summer, then irrigate to get some grass the cows would actually eat. Used a small flame thrower to light the grass. We picked calm days, but every now and then a little breeze would come up and we’d have to run ahead to set some back fires. Never had one get away from us (unlike a neighbor), but had some impressive looking flames burning together to the middle of the field.
-Al
Our favorite winery in southern (Talent) OR, Simple Machine, was lost in yesterday’s Almeda fire.
talent and phoenix wiped off the map…
Depends on where you were in Portland. We lost power briefly twice, other friends had longer outages.
I woke up Tuesday morning to what looked like an overcast sky with rain coming down. It was actually smoke, with small bits of ash coming down. Maybe it was Monday morning; I’ve forgotten by now.
I’ve watered my lawn every day for the last four days. Hadn’t watered my grass in at least 20 years.
Air quality is so bad we won’t even let our cats out. This does not lead to happy cats, but we’re very thankful that this is the extent of our problems.
Looks like we’re supposed to get rain Monday night, Tuesday, and Wednesday – looks like the rain should extend to much of central Oregon west of the Cascades and maybe even southern Oregon.
Is there word on how all these oregon fires started?
A bit smoky in Seattle too. Nothing like Oregon/California though. We are forecast to get rain next week. Hopefully the showers will spread south.
Portland General has received reports that some of the fires were started by their equipment, but so far this has not been confirmed.