A Red Flag Warning will go into effect starting Friday morning and remain in effect until late Saturday night in Western Oregon and Southwest Washington as hot weather and strong east wind make for critical fire conditions across the region.
The National Weather Service – Portland upgraded a Fire Weather Watch to a Red Flag Warning on Thursday as the coming conditions could cause fires to rapidly spread.
Some schools have announced closures in anticipation of extreme weather. Check the list here.
Wind gusts are expected to be between 25 and 50 miles per hour, with the strongest gusts in the higher Cascades.
“Be aware of your location/proximity to current wildfires, and refrain from any activity that may cause a start,” forecasters said.
Pacific Power and Portland General Electric are warning thousands of customers that power shutoffs may be necessary this weekend due to the fire danger.
PGE said the conditions may “threaten our ability to safely operate the electrical grid” for people living in some areas.
Officials say people should take time to prepare for the possibility of an emergency, should a fire take place. People can sign up for local weather warnings and wildfire alerts on their local county emergency management website.
Right now, there's time to prepare. People can do things like charge their electronics, get batteries, ice, and other items they need. Not only do people need to prepare for planned outages but also for unplanned ones, as strong winds have the potential to take down power lines.
During a Thursday afternoon news conference, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, representatives from PGE and PacifiCorp, as well as fire officials stressed that people need to be preparing right now for the possibility they will need to evacuate, especially in places like the Columbia River Gorge.
"We are basically going to have around-the-clock fire patrols going on, particularly on the east end of our district," Dave Flood, the fire marshal for Corbett Fire District 14, said. "We’re going to kind of post up on the far east part of our fire district and even a little beyond our district in the unprotected areas where the forest service covers, just to, kind of, cover response times in case we do have a fire up there this weekend."
Residents in Corbett are some of the thousands who were told they might lose power over the weekend. Sonia Arion and her mother-in-law Jeanne Bjorklund are thankful for the heads up.
"I was saying to Jeanne that it makes such a difference knowing ahead - being able to plan for this," Arion said. "We’ve never had this before, where we know power is likely going to be out."
Arion says the Corbett community has been working to better prepare for potential fires. She urges others to do what's necessary to protect their own homes even though it may be hard.
"I think just being aware of the resistance to want to change," Arion said. "The way we landscape, how we think about how we do things and maybe leaning into that and trying to change our habits to mitigate whatever danger there is."
Fire officials said we are at the peak of this fire season. Fuels are dry and conditions are ripe for fire.
"As we look at the forecast and estimate what conditions would be across the landscape, the combination of really dry winds, low relative humidities and an unstable atmosphere can lead to explosive fire growth, and we’re very concerned about the next 72 hours and what that means both in terms of new fires that start but also larger fires on the landscape," said Chief Deputy State Fire Marshal Travis Medema.
Watch the News Conference: