Hottest, Driest Summer + Estacada Fire

This has been a very strange summer. Not terribly bad, really. (Certainly a great wine year. 2013 produced great Pacific Northwestern wines, but I suspect the 2014 wines will be EPIC.) However, it has, for my region of the world, been the hottest and driest summer on record. They’ve made it official. We had more 90 or higher degree days than any other year and less moderate 70s and 80s. Also– rain… M.I.A. Leaves are turning or falling prematurely as trees seek to hibernate early rather than continue dealing with the drought conditions. The air is dusty whenever there is wind. And its dry. So sinus problems have been a constant issue. What few rain days we’ve had since mid May have been mostly sprinkles and drizzle. Only maybe 4 days total of true soaking rains for the last 4 months.

Of course, that means super high fire danger. This is a constant summer threat on the eastern side of the Cascades and Sierra Navadas, as conditions in the “rain shadow” are always much drier than in the fertile and green valleys and Coastal Mountains. In the westernmost one third of the United States, this is quite normal, and those areas most prone to fires don’t tend to have large population centers. However, its now dry enough on the west side that fires are popping up even in areas that normally don’t have to worry about it much.

Like Estacada. That’s a smaller town south of where I live a ways. A fire popped up there over a week ago. Last weekend it was really windy with very low humidity and in the 90s and that smallish fire went from less than 100 acres to 3,000 within a single day. Its slowed down now as we’re having a day or 2 with sprinkles (barely enough to wet the ground– and there are still dry patches under trees) but its expected to get into the 90s again this coming weekend! This is the longest summer I’ve ever had in Oregon. We had a decent and mild spring. Drier, warmer, and sunnier than normal, but no one was complaining then… NOW-? Its seriously crackling dry out there. No one here waters their lawn at such times, even though we have lots more water to spare than California. Its very yellow out there!

Last weekend the sky was covered by a smoke cloud that went right over us (luckily, or it’d be hard to breathe) but dimmed the sun and created this eerie-assed orange light. For a couple of days there, everything was in sepia tones. I both liked the artistic look of it (and the deeply colorful sunsets and moon rises) and dreaded what it meant… a fire close enough to be directly affecting day-to-day life where I live.

When it heats up and dries up, there are no clouds– but it looks like there are. Strange clouds made of smoke and carried by the winds across the sky… I don’t remember the last time we had a wildfire so large so close to the Portland metropolitan area. Little flare up, sure. But thousands of acres–? No. There are fire bans in effect most weeks lately and things feel odd, like the air itself is waiting for rain.

Hopefully they get this fire under control soon. They can’t get much outside help because there are so many large wildfires (ground level) and forest fires (much worse at tree top level) all over the place right now. The one good thing in all of this is that in the Estacada fire, its mostly the underbrush and smaller saplings, vines, and grasses that are going up. Most of the larger trees are just getting a layer of soot on their bark. It means the chances of a fire there in the next few years will be drastically reduced since so much of the fuel will be gone from this bout with flame.

Life in the West– its still pretty wild out here!