PORTLAND, Ore. — Wildfire smoke is rolling into the Pacific Northwest this weekend, bringing smoke from fires burning up in Canada to join the smoke from those burning in Washington, Oregon and northern California.
However, the Portland metro area is expected to escape the worst of the smoke. KGW Chief Meteorologist Matt Zaffino predicts that smoke will filter into the Portland area from the north over the weekend but should stay aloft.
On Sunday morning, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued air quality alerts for Multnomah County, the Columbia River Gorge and areas of central Oregon.
The DEQ also issued advisories for Jackson, southern Josephine, eastern Lane, northern Lake, Klamath, Deschutes and Crook counties earlier this week which will last through Tuesday afternoon.
"Intermittent smoke from the Lookout and Bedrock fires, along with smoke from northern California and Canada, could also bring periods of poor air quality and haze to the Portland metro area and the counties of Wallowa, Union, Baker, Grant, Umatilla, Wasco and Jefferson late Saturday afternoon into Sunday, with the poorest air quality on Saturday evening," DEQ said. "Harney and Malheur will have intermittent smoke through Saturday afternoon."
The DEQ expects to see improved air quality in the metro area Monday afternoon.
Shifting wind patterns are expected to begin pushing smoke from fires in British Columbia south into Washington state starting Friday evening. The Washington Department of Ecology tweeted an air quality alert for most of the state's counties.
A handful of counties were excluded, mostly in the southwest part of the state, including Clark, Cowlitz and Skamania. For the rest, air quality will range from moderate to unhealthy for sensitive groups, or possibly outright unhealthy.
The impacted area still includes a large portion of western Washington, including the entire Puget Sound region. The National Weather Service's Seattle office issued an Air Quality Alert for most of the area, and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency tweeted Friday that air quality was expected to decline to moderate or unhealthy for sensitive groups on Saturday and unhealthy or worse on Sunday.
Similar alerts have been issued for neighboring counties in Idaho, according to the Spokane office of the National Weather Service, with smoke expected to linger through at least Sunday.
Northern Oregon is unlikely to entirely escape the descending smoke plume, according to the National Weather Service's Pendleton office. The smoke will move south and the DEQ says the Willamette Valley will see 'intermittent smoke' which could clear Sunday night.
The encroaching smoke from the north comes as southwest and central Oregon have already been contending with smoky skies for days due to wildfires burning in the area, particularly in Lane County and northern California. The National Weather Service's Medford office tweeted Friday that local conditions were expected to improve in the afternoon but then worsen again in the coming days.