This story originally appeared in the Oregon Capital Chronicle and is used with permission.
Smoke and smog is clogging much of the air in Oregon, state officials said Wednesday.
At mid-day, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued an air advisory for 20 of Oregon’s 36 counties due to wildfire smoke, then followed that up about 30 minutes later with a smog alert for the Portland area and Umatilla County.
The smog is caused by ozone pollution from the weather and traffic. Ozone forms when hot temperatures and low winds combine with pollution from cars, gas-powered engines and chemicals in paints and aerosols, the agencies said in a release. The pollutants react with sunlight and heat to produce ozone and haze.
Though the air quality can be clear in the morning, as the heat sets in and the hours tick by with the sun streaming down, pollution levels rise and tend to peak in the afternoon and early evening.
Smoke levels in the air can also vary during the day, depending on weather conditions. DEQ said that as dozens of large fires burn in Oregon, Washington and California that smoke-clogged air could plague Baker, eastern Benton, Clackamas, eastern Douglas, Harney, Hood River, Jackson, Jefferson, Josephine, central Lane, Linn, Malheur, Marion, Multnomah, eastern Polk, Umatilla, Wallowa, Wasco, eastern Washington and eastern Yamhill counties.
Both smoke and smog irritate the eyes, nose and lungs and contribute to breathing problems. People who are pregnant, seniors and those with heart disease or respiratory conditions are especially vulnerable to smog. The agencies said they should avoid exposure, if possible, by limiting outdoor activities when pollution levels rise.
The agencies advised people in the Portland area, where traffic can be heavy, and Umatilla County, with interstate and state and regional highways, to carpool or avoid traveling in a gas-powered vehicle altogether and use public transport to curtail the harmful emissions. They also said residents should avoid using gas-powered yard equipment, avoid letting vehicles idle and put off aerosol painting projects.
The smog advisory will remain in place in Umatilla County through 8 p.m. Wednesday and in the Portland area until 8 p.m. on Thursday. The smoke alert will run until Friday afternoon.
Oregon on track to set new wildfire record for acreage burned
The wildfire season in Oregon has likely not yet peaked and already 1.3 million acres have been blackened or are ablaze, with 34 large fires burning.
And five of them have spread over 100,000 acres each.
“We are on a trend of possibly setting a record in the state of Oregon for the amount of acres affected by fire,” Carol Connolly, a spokesperson for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, which coordinates fire resources, told the Capital Chronicle. “Typically the Northwest peaks around Aug. 14, so we still have a while to go in this fire season.”
Since 1992, when the center started tracking burned acreage, only the 2020 Labor Day Fires came close, with about 1.2 million acres burned in 11 counties. But those blazes were much more destructive to communities, killing nine people and destroying more than 5,000 homes.
This year, the fires have destroyed at least 30 homes and more than 60 other structures, with hundreds of buildings remaining under threat. One death has been reported this year: Air tanker pilot James Bailey Maxwell, 74, died while working in the vicinity of the Falls Fire on July 25.
The wildfires have prompted Gov. Tina Kotek to declare a statewide emergency and ask for federal help and regulatory flexibility for farmers and ranchers.
The weather across much of Oregon has been cooler in recent days but the forecasters predict hotter and drier conditions later this week.
“Ongoing incidents will see increasing areas of active fire behavior as both cloud cover and surface moisture is transported away this week,” the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center said in a morning briefing.
