Here Comes The Wildfire Smoke Into Willamette Valley Skies

The first sign of smoke above Portland appeared around sunset on Tuesday August 6, 2013.

That is a finger of smoke just coming into view of our KOIN Tower camera.

And there’s a lot more where that came from. A lot more smoke headed into Salem, Portland and Vancouver skies.

The National Weather Service in Portland posted this image on its facebook page that shows the smoke moving into the central Oregon Cascades Tuesday afternoon August 6, 2013. I love the sense of humor in the title: “Holy smoke, Batman!” Very nice.

Where is all the smoke coming from? Southern Oregon & Northern California wildfires. This is a NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Oregon & California wildfire smoke. The Big Windy Complex Wildfire and Douglas Complex Wildfires are burning in Oregon. The Salmon River Complex and Orleans Complex Wildfires are burning in California. The orange outlines you see (if you expand this image) are hot spots detected on August 5, 2013.

The smoke has been so thick in southern Oregon that the American Red Cross of southern Oregon has distributed 20,000 of those face masks that help filter the air. Now, a change in the air flow is bringing at least some of this smoke to Willamette Valley skies the next few days.

Why are winds up above Portland suddenly bringing in smoke & haze from southern Oregon Wildfires? It’s because of the position of this area of low pressure. It’s basically pumping the air from the south…right to Salem, Portland, Vancouver and much of Oregon.

This low pressure will do three main things–increase t-storm chances for the Cascades & east, bring some high clouds through at times and #3 (as you see listed here!) bring in smoke to the Willamette Valley skies from southern Oregon and northern California wildfires.

Beautiful sunrises & sunsets ahead: the best thing about smoke from wildfires, if there is a best thing? I think it’s the brilliant colors the smoke helps create at the start and end of the day. And thanks to Karen for sending in this sunset shot from Camp Sherman, Oregon (a ‘stones throw’ from Black Butte) on Tuesday August 6, 2013.

Look for colors like these the next few days around much of Oregon & southwest Washington because of this smoke.