We did not get on the Crooked River this week. The Canyon was blanketed with a layer of wildfire smoke.
At the beginning of the week a thunderstorm walked lightning from the south to north, across Central Oregon. In its wake were a multiple fires.
Most of those ignitions were dealt with quickly, but a handful grew into major burns.
The biggest, Akawa Butte fire is over 26,000 acres and only 3% contained. It threatens the city of Sisters. But that’s not the only problem.
Pull up the app Watchduty and you’ll see that from Redmond north to Interstate 84 (the Oregon border) there is literally nothing but orange flames. So many in fact that two are designated “Complexes”.
The Rowe Creek complex is ten fires that have consumed 132,000 acres and is only 16% contained. North of that is the Hay Creek Complex which is 5 fires on 116,000 acres, but it’s 76% contained.
To make matters worse, a second storm swept up nearly the same line and while it brought some rain, lightning started a couple dozen new burns.
All of this fire brings smoke. While here. south of Bend, we’ve been spared the worst of the air quality numbers, we still sit under 100 plus readings. Unfortunately, this has become the norm for summer.