By: Sandy Wang
On Sunday, July 21, around half a million people in the Pacific Northwest, mostly Oregon and Washington State, were under the risk of severe wildfires starting due to a scorching heat wave, strong winds, and low humidity.
According to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, an organization that tracks fires, twenty-two fires were burning in Oregon and six fires were burning in Washington State. Due to these fires, which caused the temperature to rise to over 110 degrees Fahrenheit in the Pacific Northwest, eleven million people in Washington, California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and Idaho were under extreme heat warnings.
In addition to heat warnings, the National Weather Service warned half a million people in Oregon and Washington State about extreme fires that were very likely to happen. “Our firefighters are working extremely hard to protect communities that are threatened by wildfires,” John Hendricks, a spokesman for the Oregon State Fire Marshal, said. “And we’re asking Oregonians to help us out by doing everything that they can to avoid sparking a human-caused fire.”
Despite the extreme fire warnings, several large fires had already sprung up throughout Oregon, including the Falls fire, the Cow Valley fire, the Lone Rock fire, and the Durkee fire. According to the Oregon Department of Emergency Management, the Falls fire started on July 10, burned over 117,000 acres, and was 12 percent contained by Sunday.
The Cow Valley fire started on July 11, burned over 133,000 acres, and was almost 80 percent contained. The Lone Rock fire started on July 14, burned over 100,000 acres, and was 40 percent contained. The Durkee fire started recently last Wednesday, burned over 74,000 acres, and was zero percent contained.
In a New York Times article, Yan Zhuang and Amanda Holpuch wrote, “At the news conference, Kyle Williams, deputy director of fire operations at the Oregon Department of Forestry, said that the weekend lightning forecast could make things worse.” Due to lightning from thunderstorms, more than 100 various sized fires had already started that week, but it is expected to increase by next week.
Link to Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/21/us/wildfires-lightning-oregon-washington.html Image Credit: https://www.nps.gov/acad/learn/nature/wildland-fire.htm