Pacific Northwest summer wildfire season could stoke COVID-19 pandemic
An underwhelming 2019 Washington fire season, with rains just frequent enough to wet down dry forests, threatens to dampen memories of thick, dangerous smoke that covered much of the Pacific Northwest during the summers of 2017 and 2018.
The burn may be coming back. While the Puget Sound/Olympic Peninsula snowpack is normal, the federal government's recent Wildland Potential Fire Outlook report is carrying an ominous warning:
"Above normal significant large fire potential will begin developing across Southwest Oregon in June and then expand to include all but the Northwest quarter of the region by August."
Maps show dry conditions in Central Washington, Northwest Washington, and up into British Columbia, exactly the places from which our fire smoke of recent summers has come. "We're anticipating based on dryness observed, some of the (predictive areas) in Oregon and Washington are likely to undergo elevated risks for large fires beginning in July of 2020," said an assessment last month from the National Interagency Fire Center.
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