Unknown reason for a fire that started on private property and quickly spread due to winds. There is a rumor that it was due to a lawn mower that hit a rock and sparked the fire.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS PDT wrote it up.
Unknown reason for a fire that started on private property and quickly spread due to winds. There is a rumor that it was due to a lawn mower that hit a rock and sparked the fire. The fire would spread to 25,937 acres. The fire was estimated to be contained by midnight on August 3rd.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Pendleton, OR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 31, 9:35 PM PST, 2 hours 25 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PENDLETON OR
1035 PM PDT THU JUL 31 2014
UPDATED FOR AVIATION DISCUSSION
.SHORT TERM...WIDESPREAD THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY THIS AFTERNOON AND
EVENING OVER CENTRAL OREGON. FAIRLY STRONG SHORT WAVE SEEN ON WATER
VAPOR IMAGERY RESULTING IN THE STORM DEVELOPMENT. EXPECT THIS
ACTIVITY TO CONTINUE THROUGH THE EVENING AND POSSIBLY INTO THE
OVERNIGHT PERIOD AS IT SLOWLY MOVES NORTHWARD. LARGE AREA OF THICK
CLOUD COVER ACROSS THE REGION TONIGHT WILL KEEP LOW TEMPERATURES ON
THE WARM SIDE. ADDITIONAL SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. 94
&&
.AVIATION...06Z TAFS...VFR CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO PREVAIL OVER
THE NEXT 24 HOURS. HOWEVER IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOME TAF SITES WILL
SEE MVFR CONDITIONS IMPACTED BY THUNDERSTORMS BETWEEN 18Z FRIDAY
THROUGH 06Z SATURDAY. HAVE ADDED VCTS TO TAF SITES THAT ARE OF
CONCERN. DID NOT MENTION THUNDER AT KDLS OR KPSC...BUT WONT RULE IT
OUT...RIGHT NOW CONFIDENCE IS JUST WAS NOT HIGH ENOUGH. HAVE ALSO
ADDED A PROB30 FOR -TSRA...AS THESE SITES ARE IN THE HIGHER
CONFIDENCE OF THUNDER. CLOUD CIGS WILL GENERALLY BE BETWEEN
10-15KFT. WINDS WILL BE AROUND 10-20KTS...WITH SOME AREAS GUSTING
25-30KTS. WEBER
&&
.PREV DISC... /ISSUED 246 PM PDT THU JUL 31 2014/
SHORT TERM...TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY...AN UPPER RIDGE WILL CONTINUE
OVER THE WESTERN U.S., WITH AN AXIS LARGELY RUNNING THROUGH NEVADA
INTO IDAHO, TONIGHT AND FRIDAY. THE RIDGE AXIS WILL SLOWLY SHIFT
EAST TO NEAR THE ROCKIES BY SUNDAY. THE UPPER LEVEL FLOW OVER THE
PACNW WILL BE GENERALLY SOUTH TO SOUTHWESTERLY THROUGH EARLY
SATURDAY. THE UPPER FLOW THEN LOOKS TO GRADUALLY SHIFT MORE TO THE
WEST-SOUTHWEST SATURDAY INTO SUNDAY. A FAIRLY MOIST AIR MASS WILL
REMAIN OVER THE REGION TONIGHT INTO SATURDAY. MEANWHILE DISTURBANCES
WITHIN THE UPPER FLOW WILL CAUSE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS TO
DEVELOP AT TIMES, ESPECIALLY IN THE AFTERNOONS AND EVENINGS. ONE
SUCH WAVE IS MOVING THROUGH EXTREME EASTERN OREGON WHILE ANOTHER
WAVE IS MOVING INTO SOUTHWEST OREGON THIS AFTERNOON. THE FIRST
SYSTEM IS CAUSING STORMS OVER WALLOWA COUNTY AND EASTERN GRANT
COUNTY, AND THE SECOND SYSTEM IS NOW CAUSING STORMS IN DESCHUTES
COUNTY. EXPECT THE STORMS OVER THE EASTERN AREAS TO MOVE GRADUALLY
TOWARDS IDAHO, WHILE THE STORMS OVER DESCHUTES COUNTY WILL MOVE
NORTH ALONG AND PARALLEL TO THE OREGON CASCADES. A FEW OF THESE
SHOWERS/STORMS MAY DRIFT INTO SOUTH-CENTRAL WASHINGTON LATE TONIGHT,
AND WILL MENTION SHOWERS AND STORMS IN THIS AREA OVERNIGHT. THIS
SECOND WAVE WILL MOVE INTO NORTHEAST WASHINGTON FRIDAY AFTERNOON,
BUT THERE SHOULD BE ENOUGH MOISTURE AND INSTABILITY TO CAUSE VARYING
AMOUNTS OF SHOWERS AND STORMS OVER MUCH OF THE AREA FRIDAY AFTERNOON
AND EVENING. CONDITIONS SATURDAY WILL BE RELATIVELY SIMILAR TO
FRIDAY, THOUGH A GRADUAL SHIFT IN THE FLOW ALOFT TO WEST-SOUTHWEST
WILL LEAD TO SOME DRYING OF THE AIR MASS. THUS WILL CONTINUE TO
INDICATE DRY CONDITIONS IN AND NEAR THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE WHILE
CONTINUING A MENTION OF SHOWERS/STORMS ELSEWHERE. BY SUNDAY, EXPECT
THE DRYING TO SPREAD OVER A LARGER PORTION OF THE AREA AND WILL ONLY
INDICATE SHOWERS AND STORMS FROM CENTRAL OREGON EAST TO GRANT COUNTY
AND NORTHEAST TO THE BLUES AND WALLOWA COUNTY. TEMPS WILL CONTINUE
ABOVE SEASONAL, BUT WILL BE A BIT COOLER THAN IN RECENT DAYS. 90
LONG TERM...SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY...THE 12Z GFS AND ECMWF
RUNS SHOW A WEAK PACIFIC SHORT WAVE MOVING THROUGH THE RIDGE SUNDAY
NIGHT, MONDAY AND TUESDAY. SO I HAVE KEPT A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS
AND THUNDERSTORMS FOR SUNDAY NIGHT INTO TUESDAY EVENING IN CENTRAL
OREGON AND OVER THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHEAST OREGON. WEDNESDAY AND
THURSDAY AN AMPLIFYING MID/UPPER LEVEL RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE OVER
THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST AND BRITISH COLUMBIA WILL INITIATE A STRETCH
OF DRY AND STABLE WEATHER FOR THE FORECAST AREA FROM TUESDAY NIGHT
THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT. POLAN
FIRE WX...WARM AND DRY CONDITIONS CONTINUE UNDER A RIDGE OF HIGH
PRESSURE WITH OVERNIGHT HUMIDITY RECOVERY POOR TO MODERATE.
THUNDERSTORM CHANCES WILL INCREASE AND SPREAD NORTH AND EAST EACH
DAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND. MOST STORMS SHOULD STAY SOUTH OF THE
WASHINGTON BORDER UNTIL FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. STORMS THAT DEVELOP
WILL BE A MIXTURE OF WET AND DRY WITH PRECIPITATION RANGING FROM A
FEW HUNDREDTHS OF AN INCH TO AROUND A QUARTER OF AN INCH. RED FLAG
WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT FOR ABUNDANT LIGHTNING ACROSS CENTRAL
OREGON...NORTH CENTRAL OREGON AND THE NORTHEAST MOUNTAINS THROUGH
SATURDAY. DMH
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
PDT 70 96 66 98 / 20 20 20 20
ALW 73 97 70 99 / 20 20 20 20
PSC 68 99 65 100 / 10 20 20 20
YKM 68 96 65 97 / 10 20 20 20
HRI 68 98 65 99 / 10 20 20 20
ELN 63 98 61 99 / 10 20 20 20
RDM 59 93 56 93 / 30 30 30 30
LGD 61 92 59 92 / 30 30 30 30
GCD 66 96 59 96 / 30 30 30 30
DLS 69 94 66 94 / 20 20 20 10
&&
.PDT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OR...RED FLAG WARNING UNTIL 11 PM PDT SATURDAY
ORZ041-049-050-502-503-505>507-509>511.
WA...RED FLAG WARNING UNTIL 11 PM PDT SATURDAY WAZ030.
FIRE WEATHER WATCH FROM 5 AM PDT FRIDAY THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING
WAZ026-027-520.
&&
FOR ADDITIONAL WEATHER INFORMATION, CHECK OUR WEB SITE AT...
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/PENDLETON
94/The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
InciWeb information.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oregon in 2014Every state in 2014This day in weather historyWarnings in Oregon, August 2014
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 530655.