No major wildfire danger predicted over Labor Day amid Salem's third-hottest summer
Temperatures in northwest Oregon will begin cooling to traditionally normal levels over Labor Day weekend as the state bids farewell to a hotter-than-normal summer and begins meteorological autumn.
High temperatures will move from the 90s back into the 80s and even 70s next week, which is about normal for this time of year.
No major wildfire threat looms, as the calamitous east winds that fueled the 2020 Labor Day fires are nowhere in the forecast.
Salem’s summer — June, July and August — was the third-hottest on record, with an average temperature of 69.8 degrees. Salem's hottest summers in records dating back to the 1890s were 2021, with an average temperature of 71.7 degrees, and 2015, at 71.2.
While there were no record-breaking heat waves akin to what transpired in June 2021, when Salem set it’s all-time heat record of 117 degrees, July and August were consistently hotter than normal, according to meteorologists, accounting for this year's overall heat.
August in particular was very hot — with an average temperature of 72.5 that ranked as the second hottest in Salem history.
“August was so hot not only because of the high daytime highs — days well above 90 — but also because of how warm the nights were,” said Jon Bonk, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Portland. “We just didn’t get that nighttime cooling — that Pacific air conditioning that we sometimes call it — in the same way as the past.”
July and August ranked as the warmest or one of the warmest for many of Oregon's largest towns. Quite the turnaround from the cool, wet spring we experienced!
And to think, someone in June predicted this would be a year without a summer in Oregon. pic.twitter.com/nJy7k2POS3— Larry O'Neill (@laoneill25) September 1, 2022
Although it has been a quiet wildfire season compared to recent years, there are two large fires burning in western Oregon that could bring hazy skies and poor air quality in southern Oregon and in the Oakridge area east of Eugene.
The Cedar Creek Fire is just under 9,000 acres near Waldo Lake and has brought unhealthy air quality to Oakridge, while the Rum Creek Fire outside Grants Pass and fires in northern California has spewed often-unhealthy air or worse across Medford, Ashland and Cave Junction this past week.
The cooler projected temperatures should help somewhat with the fires but no serious rain is yet in the forecast.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 15 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. To support his work, subscribe to the Statesman Journal. Urness is the author of “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.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: No major wildfire danger predicted over Labor Day after hot Salem summer
