The Western U.S. has seen a relatively quiet start to fire season with more severe conditions north of the border in Canada. However, fire activity is beginning to pick up in the Western U.S. thanks to recent hot and dry conditions along with gusty winds.

The most active fire currently is the Flat Fire, which began on Saturday, July 15, and is determined to have been human-caused. The Flat Fire is located in the Coast Range of Southwest Oregon, just south of the town of Agness, and is 0% contained.

Our new Active Fires Map map shows the fire perimeter of the Flat Fire as of Monday morning when it was updated by a local fire incident response team. Satellite-detected hot spots can also be seen within the perimeter, and also outside the perimeter – the latter of which indicates fire growth since the last perimeter update. 

Learn More → Active Fires Map (available on the OpenSnow website, in development for the app)

As of 8:28 am on Monday morning (July 17), the Flat Fire had burned 4,000 acres as indicated on our Active Fires Map. A recent update as of Monday afternoon confirms that the fire has since grown to 5,477 acres.

The Flat Fire is being fueled by gusty winds along with hot temperatures and low relative humidity. Recent strong winds have resulted from a trough of low pressure passing just north of the region over Washington, while a strong ridge of high pressure remains to the south.

Winds are forecasted to remain gusty at times on Monday and Tuesday with peak wind gusts in the 20-25 mph range during the afternoon hours. Winds should be a little bit later during the second half of the week, but could still be gusty at times during the afternoon hours.

Winds have been and will continue to blow out of the north/northeast, which will likely result in additional southward movement of the fire, though significant growth has also been noted on the eastern perimeter of the fire.

The north/northeast winds over the Coast Range will also favor smoke transport southward into Northern California, with locally poor air quality for some areas. Light to moderate smoke has also become entrained into west/southwest winds aloft further east, which will result in some of this smoke reaching the Northern Rockies at times.

Track Wildfire Smoke & Air Quality With These Forecast Maps

This fire is expected to grow over the upcoming week with additional hot and dry weather forecast, along with occasional gusty afternoon winds. On a larger scale, the greatest threat for new wildfires across the Pacific Northwest this week will be on Monday when winds are strongest. 

Alan Smith