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Approaching rains expected to douse Oregon flames
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 | No comments posted.
PORTLAND (AP) — An approaching storm is predicted to drop 1 to 2 inches of rain on many of the fires ignited by a recent flurry of lightning strikes.
“This could put a real damper on Oregon’s fire season,” Paul Tolleson, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Portland, said of the rains expected to start late today.
Thousands of lightning strikes Sunday and Monday sparked roughly 175 new fires in the state — most of them small.
What had appeared to be the worst of Oregon’s wildfires was coming under control Monday evening. Infrared imaging from an air survey led fire managers to downgrade the size of the Bridge Creek fire in central Oregon’s Ochoco Mountains, three miles south of Mitchell. Lower temperatures and some moisture Monday checked the fire’s growth, said Peter Frenzen, spokesman for the Northwest Fire Use Management Team.
Elsewhere, the 516-acre Gnarl fire on Mount Hood continued to burn through rugged terrain late Monday. An evacuation advisory issued over the weekend to residents near Cooper Spur and Mountain Shadow remains in effect.
Spokesman John Townsley of the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center said the rains will “give our crews on the Gnarl fire a chance to get up close and personal with the fire.”
But he said fire crews weren’t in the clear yet. This latest storm system will soon be gone, and typical August weather will return.
“We’re back into dry and hot by the weekend,” he said.
“This could put a real damper on Oregon’s fire season,” Paul Tolleson, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Portland, said of the rains expected to start late today.
Thousands of lightning strikes Sunday and Monday sparked roughly 175 new fires in the state — most of them small.
What had appeared to be the worst of Oregon’s wildfires was coming under control Monday evening. Infrared imaging from an air survey led fire managers to downgrade the size of the Bridge Creek fire in central Oregon’s Ochoco Mountains, three miles south of Mitchell. Lower temperatures and some moisture Monday checked the fire’s growth, said Peter Frenzen, spokesman for the Northwest Fire Use Management Team.
Elsewhere, the 516-acre Gnarl fire on Mount Hood continued to burn through rugged terrain late Monday. An evacuation advisory issued over the weekend to residents near Cooper Spur and Mountain Shadow remains in effect.
Spokesman John Townsley of the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center said the rains will “give our crews on the Gnarl fire a chance to get up close and personal with the fire.”
But he said fire crews weren’t in the clear yet. This latest storm system will soon be gone, and typical August weather will return.
“We’re back into dry and hot by the weekend,” he said.
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