With the help of cooler and wetter weather, fire suppression activities continued through October.
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 PQR wrote it up.
With the help of cooler and wetter weather, fire suppression activities continued through October.
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 Portland, OR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 30, 8:22 PM PST, 3 hours 38 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED National Weather Service Portland OR 922 PM PDT Wed Sep 30 2020 Updated aviation discussion. .SYNOPSIS...High pressure over the region will maintain warm and dry conditions through Friday, with varying smoke aloft. A weak disturbance will move across Pac NW on Friday, with increasing onshore flow and cooler temperatures. This will also push the deflect the smoke back to the east and south, with smoke staying mostly over southern Oregon this weekend. Still mild and dry to start next week, but return to increasing onshore flow with clouds and even rain looking more likely by end of next week. && .SHORT TERM...Tonight through Saturday...Overall, not much change in weather pattern, as strong high pressure remains parked over southeastern Oregon. This will maintain warm and dry air mass over the Pac NW through Friday. Marine layer will continue to hug the coast tonight, with patchy fog at times.This stratus will drift into the valleys of the Coast Range and Willapa Hills overnight. But, pressure gradients not all that strong, so will have only limited movement inland. That said, am not expecting marine clouds to reach the Willamette Valley overnight, though will see patchy fog again. Smoke aloft will continue to stream out of California northward into and across the Pac NW. Though smoke layer aloft is not all that thick, the varying thickness will be apparent from the orange/red tinting of the sun during the day, and moon at night. Rather strong inversion over the region, which will act to keep the smoke aloft, and not reach the lower elevations. Will see some patchy smoke in/around the fire, mainly in the Cascades around Lionshead fire. Also, with the inversion, the air inland below it (yes, this is the nearly all areas below about 2000 feet), will not change as will just be recycling it. So, even though air is somewhat stagnant, the air will generally stay in the good to moderate air quality. Not much change for Thursday, as looks like will have a near repeat of today again for Thursday, and to some degree, Friday as well. Weak upper level disturbance will push across region later Friday. This system will bring no rain, but will act to enhance the low level onshore flow. Will see increasing low clouds along the coast later in the afternoon, with those clouds pushing inland Friday night. With the deepening marine layer, will add patchy fog/patchy drizzle for Friday night into early Sat along the coast and into the western slopes of the Coast Range and Willapa Hills. After morning clouds, most areas will break back to partly to mostly sunny skies on Saturday, with coast last to improve. Will be cooler, with highs inland only in the 70s. And, flow aloft will be more west to southwesterly, which will clear the smoke aloft. /Rockey .LONG TERM...Saturday night through Wednesday...Models maintain more a west to southwest flow aloft through Sunday. This will maintain light to moderate onshore flow, with mild temperatures again on Sunday. Could be tad breezy with the west to northwest winds in the afternoon, primarily in the Gorge where could see gusts 20 to 25 mph into Sunday evening. Gradients and onshore flow weakens Sunday night, with light and variable flow. But, with upper high just offshore on Monday, will see light offshore flow develop. This will bring temperatures back up a tad but still in the 70s to lower 80s. Mainly, the flow will provide bit warmer overnight temperatures in the higher terrain. But, any east winds will not be all that strong. But, this will be a brief bout, as the offshore flow will weaken again Tue. After that, models gradually becoming more progressive as go deeper into next week. Models do diverge by Wed and Thu, with some runs showing rather wet and strong front arriving, with others show clouds and dry, with deep low approaching on Thu into Fri. For the moment, am trending towards a front arriving on Thu, followed by a rather juicy system later Friday. Whoo boy. While our confidence is high for a change for next week, am maintaining low confidence in what will really happen. As they say, stay tuned. /Rockey && .AVIATION...Marine stratus continues along the coast this evening with satellite imagery showing it spreading inland slightly through the western most portions of the Coast Range. The marine stratus and coordinating fog will thicken through the evening as winds weaken. Expect IFR cigs and vis along the coast through the night, with localized improvements after 18Z Thu. Elsewhere, smoke is streaming into the area from the fires in California producing a broken layer of clouds/haze aloft around 9000 ft. Smoke likely will not impact visibility through the next 24 hours, and the layer will provide enough insulation to keep fog at bay. While there is a chance for some patchy ground fog, likely will not be pervasive and should stick to the Willamette Valley after 12Z Thu. By daybreak and through the remainder of the forecast, inland areas will be VFR with some lingering haze aloft. Coastal areas likely will see some improvement, but will high pressure anchored over the region, there will not be a driving force to clear any of the marine stratus. Likely conditions will repeat tomorrow afternoon. Refer to http://weather.gov/zse for detailed regional aviation weather and hazard information. KPDX AND APPROACHES...VFR with an elevated smoke layer near FL090 for the next 24 hours. Thin river fog could briefly affect visibility early Thursday. Have included the presence of ground fog without a visibility restriction at this time, however there is a chance that visibility could deteriorate overnight. -Muessle/JBonk && .MARINE..No significant changes as high pressure aloft and light surface pressure gradients result in light winds for the next few days. Next wind concern will be as a thermal surface low build north along the coast later this weekend. Wind gusts 20-25 kt will be possible Sunday through Tuesday, especially for the central waters. Multiple lows in the Gulf of Alaska will continue to send periodic 6 to 8 ft westerly swell trains across the waters every 36-48 hours. Given the lighter winds and minimal wind wave development, this should only bring seas up toward 9 ft at times. /JBonk && .PQR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... OR...None. WA...None. PZ...None. && Interact with us via social media: www.facebook.com/NWSPortland www.twitter.com/NWSPortland
9 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
Fire suppression activities continued on the Beachie Creek wildfire through October as cooler and wetter weather arrived.
Fire suppression activities continued on the Beachie Creek wildfire through October as cooler and wetter weather arrived.
Fire suppression activities continued on the Holiday Farm wildfire through October as cooler and wetter weather arrived.
Fire suppression activities continued on the Holiday Farm wildfire through October as cooler and wetter weather arrived.
Fire suppression activities continued on the Holiday Farm wildfire through October as cooler and wetter weather arrived.
Fire suppression activities continued on the Holiday Farm wildfire through October as cooler and wetter weather arrived.
Fire suppression activities continued on the Lionshead wildfire through October as cooler and wetter weather arrived.
Fire suppression activities continued on the Riverside wildfire through October as cooler and wetter weather arrived.
Fire suppression activities continued on the Riverside wildfire through October as cooler and wetter weather arrived.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oregon in 2020Every state in 2020This day in weather historyWarnings in Oregon, October 2020
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: 935787, 935788, 935790, 935792, 935795, 935796, 935797, 935800, 935801.