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For much of the summer, Portland was spared the most intense effects of climate change, even as heat and wildfire smoke blanketed most of the nation.
In August, our luck ran out.
Last week, the city endured a four-day blast of 100-degree heat that Multnomah County officials now suspect killed six people. Now Portland is cloaked in a rust-colored haze, and the air quality index rose above 150—meaning the air is unhealthy enough to affect most people.
Smoke from wildfires in NE Washington & Canada will continue to impact NW Oregon & SW Washington today into tomorrow. Here's a look at the forecast from the latest smoke model. Make sure to take precautions from the smoke! Air quality info: https://t.co/lSnaFgmWVw #ORwx #WAwx pic.twitter.com/OEE5GVKzcS
— NWS Portland (@NWSPortland) August 20, 2023
It wasn’t bad enough to postpose tonight’s Portland Thorns soccer match, however. “The match remains on schedule,” team spokeswoman Katie Simons tells WW. “The National Women’s Soccer League and the club are continuing to monitor the air quality.”
The smoke is drifting into Portland from wildfires in Eastern Washington as well as the enormous blazes in British Columbia. (Canadian wildfires have been brutal and relentless this year, and this week are threatening a resort town in the Rockies, as well as causing a mass evacuation of Yellowknife, a town just 250 miles south of the Arctic Circle.)
Meteorologists from the National Weather Service’s Portland office expressed confidence that a low-pressure system moving in from the north would blow the smoke out of town on Monday.
“While we aren’t seeing the rainfall we’d like,” the NWS wrote Sunday afternoon, “this will help the fire weather conditions in the area and it will help push the smoke out of our forecast area.”
The smoke came at the tail end of what was arguably Portland’s most taxing weather week in 2023. (There’s competition.) The death toll from a heat wave continued to climb through the weekend, reaching six on Saturday. While county officials are loath to supply details of the circumstances of each death, context clues from the announcements suggest at least one person’s body was found well after the heat had subsided.
It’s cold comfort, but Portland’s woes don’t match what’s happening in the rest of Oregon. Wildfires are burning close to Bend, curtailing outdoor activities at that recreation hub. The arrival of what’s left of Hurricane Hilary later this week may douse fires, but it could also trigger landslides, state officials warned.