BOISE, Idaho —
This story originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
The Treasure Valley is in the middle of a ring of fire, flooding the valley with smoke from wildfires in Oregon and central Idaho. Tim Phelps of Great Basin Incident Management said Tuesday the air quality will get worse before it gets better.
“Wednesday and Thursday, winds are supposed to shift to a more northerly direction,” Phelps said. “Unfortunately, that’s going to probably push more smoke down from all of those other fires north and west of us, so we could be seeing some very unhealthy and even hazardous conditions over the next several days.”
The smoke in the valley is coming from the Four Corners Fire, Norton Fire and Double Creek Fire, which lies on the Oregon-Idaho border, Phelps said.
“Currently, there’s not a whole lot of really super active fire, but there is a smoldering fire,” Phelps said, regarding the Four Corners Fire, which is taking place just west of Cascade. “There’s a lot of surface fields that are still burning and expected to continue to burn over the next several days, if not a couple of weeks.”
With high pressure and smoke funneling into the Treasure Valley from wildfires, a temperature inversion is created, said meteorologist Stefanie Henry. The temperature inversion traps smoke particulates in valleys, which explains the recent heavy smoke in the air.
“This weekend we saw some hourly values in orange, but overall we were in the moderate,” said Michael Toole, regional airshed coordinator at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. Moderate air quality being marked by the color yellow, and orange signifying unhealthy for sensitive groups.
But, according to Toole, sometimes during periods of heavy smoke, the air quality isn’t as bad as it looks because the smoke is hanging far above ground level. While the smoke may block the mountains from view, it doesn’t necessarily mean the air quality is hazardous.
In addition to the smoke, the valley has been experiencing record-breaking heat this weekend. The current triple digit heat record was set this year, sitting at 25 days as of Tuesday morning. Henry said the valley is likely going to continue building off that record in the coming days. And that’s not the only temperature record on the cusp of being broken.
“We’ve never had a temperature in September higher than 102 before and we’re expecting that today and tomorrow,” Henry said Tuesday.
These hot temperatures are caused by a combination of strong high pressure and a delay in summer temperatures, she said.
This weekend Toole, Henry and Phelps expect a reduction in the ground-level smoke as the temperature begins to taper off, however. According to the National Weather Service, Boise is forecasted to hit 101 degrees on Wednesday, then drop down to 89 on Thursday and stay in the high 80s the rest of the week.
“The cooler temperatures will suppress some of the fire growth,” Henry said.
Anytime the heat is reduced, wildfires are kept at bay and firefighters can better prevent the spread, Phelps said.
The Four Corners Fire is currently 34% contained, Phelps said. Crews have successfully conducted several burnout operations, protecting the French Creek and Campbell Creek communities, which Phelps said adds to containment of the fire.
“Honestly, the Four Corners Fire itself is going to have pockets of heat in the nearly 14,000 acre perimeter for probably up until winter,” Phelps said.
Smoke will linger as hotspots continue to be cooled down and the fire is contained further, Phelps said.
”What we saw this past weekend was expected,” Toole said. “Levels and impacts are fairly comparative to what we saw last year and the year before.” According to Toole, the only real difference is the timing of the smoke, but the levels of haze are not out of the ordinary.
“We are expecting some thunderstorms Wednesday, however, and those mainly are going to be in Eastern Oregon,” Henry said. “But if we do have lightning with those or winds, outflow wind from those could generate more fires.”
This story originally appeared in the Idaho Press. Read more at IdahoPress.com
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