Wildfire season kicked off across Oregon on Wednesday with thunderstorms that brought heavy lightning statewide and sparked a number of small fires.
Twenty-one fires, all of them small, were reported by the Northwest Coordination Center Thursday morning.
In the Cascade Range east of Salem, officials reported 200 lightning strikes, including 100 that hit the ground.
The result was three small fires on Willamette National Forest.
Smoke was sighted near Robinson Lake and Hills Creek Reservoir. Both incidents had fire teams either in action or en route, Willamette National Forest spokeswoman Jude McHugh said.
A third incident, that became a fire smaller than an acre, was quickly contained.
“It is fortunate that we got a good amount of rain with yesterday’s lightning storm,” McHugh said. “We are sending firefighters in as soon as we get a report of smoke and putting the fires out immediately.”
Photos: Lightning, thunderstorms in Portland
Perhaps the most notable fire Wednesday was reported in the Columbia River Gorge near Mitchell Point in Hood River County. That fire, estimated at less than an acre, briefly closed the eastbound lane of Interstate 84.
“They got on it pretty quickly and it didn’t appear that it was spreading or there was danger of it breaking loose,” Oregon Department of Forestry spokesman Jim Gersbach said. “They’re looking to do mop up today.”
Ironically, ODF announced Thursday that most of the state was entering "fire season" due to an unusually dry May and early June.
“We’ve received a couple shots of rain recently, but that doesn’t make up for the dry spring we’ve experienced this year," Western Lane District Forester Link Smith said in a news release. "The result is that we are a couple weeks ahead of where we traditionally are regarding fuel moistures and fire conditions in the forest.”
Fire teams will stay alert given the likelihood that lightning-sparked fires will kick up when the weather warms.
“The risk there is that we can’t put a fire out until we see the smoke. And sometimes, a smoldering fire transitions to good size fire in a single dry summer afternoon,” McHugh said.
“For now, we are asking folks to keep an eye out and report any smokes," she said. "If you are camping, be sure you build small, safe campfires and have water and shovels nearby. We have plenty on our hands with lightning strikes.”
Zach Urness has been an outdoors writer, photographer and videographer in Oregon for 10 years. He is the author of the book “Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon” and “Hiking Southern Oregon.” He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.